Love Will Bring You Home
Est. 1999 by Aly Gray
“Perspectives”
Photography/ Videography Studio Exhibition
Est. 1999
I’ve spent years creating, but this piece—this one—is different.
It’s not just an image. Not just an experiment with cyanotypes, or an exploration of texture and form. Love Will Bring You Home is something deeper. A letter. A message. A thread reaching back through time, connecting me to the kid I used to be—the one who needed to hear these words the most.
Healing is a process we rarely see in real time. It’s messy, nonlinear, and impossible to frame neatly within a single piece of art. But when I stepped back and looked at this work, I saw proof of something I hadn’t realized until now:
I am healing. I am growing. And I am still here.
Darkroom at NBCCD
Behind the Scenes
Tea, Time, and Transformation
I’ve always been drawn to the way materials tell stories. The way paper wears with time, the way colours shift in the sun, the way something as delicate as a tea bag can hold layers of memory, comfort, and change.
The tea bags in this piece have been through a process—dyed, exposed, manipulated, transformed. Just like me.
The cyanotype technique itself is a metaphor for the past—how experiences imprint on us, how light and exposure bring things into clarity. Each layer of this piece is an echo of something I’ve carried with me. Some wounds, some wisdom, but all of it led me here.
Draft for Est. 1999
If I Could Write a Letter to me..
If I could sit down with little Alyson—the kid with big dreams and even bigger emotions—I’d tell her this:
You are brave. You are creative. And you are already enough.
I didn’t always believe that. But through this piece, I’m learning to.
Getting diagnosed with ADHD helped me understand myself in ways I never could before. It explained why I feel so deeply, why the world sometimes overwhelms me, why art has always been my escape. What once felt like a constant mismatch between me and the world now feels like a superpower—one that allows me to create, to connect, to see things differently.
This artwork is my way of making peace with the past. Of looking at every version of myself—the lost, the lonely, the loud, the misunderstood—and saying:
I love you. I understand you. You’re doing great.
Tied Together
The strings and bows woven into this piece aren’t just decorative. They represent connection. The people who have held me together when I felt like I was coming undone. Family. Friends. Every hand that has lifted me up when I needed it most.
I used to think I had to do everything alone. That strength meant solitude, that vulnerability was weakness. But this work, this journey—it’s shown me otherwise. We heal through connection. Through understanding. Through love.
Pass It On
Love Will Bring You Home isn’t just my story. It’s for anyone who has ever felt like they were too much, or not enough. Anyone who is still figuring it out. Anyone who needs a reminder that perfection is a myth, but growth is real.
So if no one has told you today:
I see you. I understand you. You’re doing great.
Pass it on.
Love,
Aly
