Reclaiming Eden is a documentation of my development towards consciousness and reweaving of a self.

In Memoriam, 2024. Artist's dresser and belongings, medication bottles, and flameless votive candles.

As I investigate my story of growth, intertwined with mental illness, generational trauma, and the effects of abusive religious institutions, I also highlight profound love in family and community, creating a complicated and nuanced tapestry.

The Veil, 2024. Artist's crib and belongings, tulle, fibers, and tree branches.

I offer this installation as a space for introspection, healing, and community connection, and seek to initiate conversations about mental and emotional well-being.

Awakening, 2024. Artist's furniture, hair, and belongings, copper tacks, fibers, and mixed media art.

I create from a need to understand, unravel, and remake, engaging in artistic practices of collecting, deconstructing, and reweaving, using ephemera, artifacts, and memories as my media.

The Fall, 2023. Artist's sweater, hair, and belongings, fibers, wine, tree branches, medication bottles, and flameless votive candles.

The exhibition is an externalization of my psyche; the objects and artworks are traces of my search for Eden.

Reclaiming Eden, 2024. Artist's domestic textiles, embroidery, aspen logs and branches, fiber, and sound.

As I invite viewers into the metaphysical, my work becomes a portal into the sacred.

Reclaiming Eden at the Alvin Gittins Gallery, University of Utah, May 2024.

Reclaiming Eden

Exhibition Documentation

Reclaiming Eden (detail) at the Alvin Gittins Gallery, University of Utah, May 2024

i. In Memoriam

in the mind’s shadow

my history unfurls

revealing a path from

creation to liberation.

In Memoriam, 2024. Artist's dresser and belongings, medication bottles, and flameless votive candles.

I. The Veil

in the beginning

was the promise of Eden

a garden, a sanctuary

but paradise comes at a price

a sinister whisper

rustles tender leaves

tangles my limbs

clouds my mind

my actions

betray my conscience

a will ensnared

not truly mine

I am entombed

in the Serpent’s embrace

The Veil, 2024. Artist's crib and belongings, tulle, fibers, and tree branches.

II. Awakening

shadows claim those I cherish

joy and communion are tainted

a deadly tide

pulls me into oblivion

frantic search for reason

wrenching in the coils

looking into

the Serpent’s eyes

I realize

they are my own

Awakening, 2024. Artist's furniture, hair, and belongings, copper tacks, fibers, and mixed media art.

III. The Fall

an awakening

rips the veil

screams

shatter the silence

my eyes open

to my entrapment

detangling

unraveling

the searing pain of liberation

strips layers of my being

torn from flesh

the creatures screech

drowning my cries

Ripped sweater with shadow cast on wall behind. Medication bottles with candles in them on floor. Shot from below.

The Fall, 2023. Artist's sweater, hair, and belongings, fibers, wine, tree branches, medication bottles, and flameless votive candles.

IV. Reclaiming Eden

escape from false Eden

reclamation of my soul

the mist clears

the Serpent exposed

I climb from the pit

raw, dazed, but free

with remnants of shed skin

I make a new covering

I had sought a lost garden

but now carry true Eden

Reclaiming Eden, 2024. Artist's domestic textiles, embroidery, aspen logs and branches, fiber, and sound.

Reclaiming Eden Sound, 2024. MP3, duration 04:18.

Reclaiming Eden Sound, video documentation clip from exhibition.