Everybody’s nicer when they’re sad

My creative practice is about developing a sensitivity and curiosity towards myself and my world as much as it is about the formal qualities of creating objects. For the longest time, I considered myself a taker more than a maker––constantly absorbing my surroundings and capturing them in photographs to contemplate, question, and appreciate. Through events in recent years, including my participation in graduate school at the University of North Carolina Greensboro, I have come to learn that making art does not simply mean making things. It means making time, making care, making space, making relationships, and making my life into whatever form these lessons shape. The exhibition Keep In Touch, acts as an evidentiary collection of ephemera that is both mentally and physically collected as I stumble along the path through this emotional education. Everybody’s Nicer When They’re Sad, mines these transformative moments through the empathizing tool of narrative. Rather than didactically telling a viewer where the sources of my creative practice comes from, this text aims to show the story of the complex, ever-expanding, interwoven web of instances and influences that craft a human life. This document also acts as a way to personally process my happiness, hurt, and healing to better keep in touch with how I live, while hoping to create space for others to consider the same