If you are interested in purchasing a catalog from the show with photographs of all of the work, please visit my small works shop. Thank you!

In spring of 2021, I created a collaborative, community memorial at the District of Columbia Arts Center as a monument to personal grief.

2020 was a year filled with more than words can express. We suffered individually, in our families, as communities and world wide. We were isolated and confined, broken and infected, judged and criticized. We lost and let go. Many died, others endured illness, and some lost hope. Many were harmed and some caused harm. We were angered and treated unfairly; misunderstood, and victimized. I know it would be foolish to try to understand the extreme anguish some experienced this year, or possibly throughout their whole lives, but for this project, my hope was to pinpoint the cause of some of this torment. I wanted to bring to the surface something felt internally, personally, and deep within; something humans are very familiar with, although often subconsciously, and something that changes us at our very cores—those whom we mourn.

I posed the question to my fellow humans: “Who do you mourn?” Responses from the community were sent in anonymously. I built stone-like plaques out of handmade paper to display each person’s response separately, resulting in a memorial that invited the viewer to consider both the impermanence of our lives and the certain grief we experience when tragedy arises. Each final piece is unique and substantial in thickness, yet made of materials which could be easily trashed. I collected these items from my own life, and gave them as an offering to my fellow humans. My own waste is a representation of myself; it amplifies my strengths, my weaknesses, my education, my naivety, my background, my lack of understanding, and my growth over time, and ultimately, that is all any of us have to give.

My waste for the handmade paper includes: scrap paper, board game pieces, pharmacy papers and bag, pad wrappers, paper towels from paint blotting, receipts, manuals, tissue paper, old drawings, packing boxes, candy wrappers, cardboard ribbon bobbin, children's books, clothing tags, left over glitter, packing bubbles, soap wrappers, checks, extra business cards, Christmas cards, junk mail, plastic bottle wrappers, balloons, children book covers , airplane tickets, ribbon from presents, old paper bags, papers from baby shower, scrap paper for painting, coloring book pages, old brochures, old paintings, band-aid wrappers, painters tape, fake rose petals from the the park, chapstick wrapper, used stickers, voting and ballot info, old flyers, newspapers, loose journal paper, extra Playbills, tickets, art show flyers, toilet rolls, post it notes, old paper maps, notes, old paint palette, manuals, paper bag pieces, packing paper, Nerf gun packaging, holiday shopping magazine, photographs, calendar, envelopes, gift box, Middle School planner, plastic lai, airplane baggage claim sticker, batteries packages, tea bag wrappers, egg carton, foam core scraps, art festival posters, magazines, children’s art, DVD covers, paper making kit add-ins— string, dollars, lavender buds, paper towels, envelopes, used note pad, study cards, shoe box, Got Milk? ads, teach yourself harmonica book, High School English papers, handouts, old school folders, printed family tree, pamphlets, art print, newsletter, copied sheet music, printed power point presentation, conference notes, dog hair, dried play dough, bouillon cube wrappers, gum wrappers, Valentines garland, dead flowers, and orange peels.

I recognize I have a lot to learn from others; from their background, knowledge, and experience. Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who contributed by sending in answers and allowing visitors to mourn with you. I hope that this collaboration will help our community remember the sadness and anger we have experienced, open our eyes to the pain of others, unify us, and help us rise.