I AM NOT · 2023

I WROTE THIS SONG FOR YOU. · 2025

THE STORY BEHIND THE WORK

These works grew out of an abusive relationship in which criticism, insults, and repeated negative descriptions became part of the way I was spoken to and, over time, part of the way I began to think about myself.

Leaving the relationship did not immediately erase those words. Some of them stayed with me long after the conversations were over, and I found myself returning to them as I tried to understand what had happened and what I still believed about myself because of it.

Making these pieces became a way to confront that language rather than continue carrying it quietly. I AM NOT  looks directly at the names and descriptions that had been placed on me. I LOVE ME  turns toward self-worth and the idea that my value does not depend on whether someone else chooses to give me love or approval. I wrote this song for you. came later, continuing the process of looking back with greater distance and a voice that felt increasingly like my own.

Together, the three works document different moments in the same process: recognizing the story I had been given, questioning it, and deciding that I had the right to tell a different one.

Leaving the relationship was one thing. Unlearning its language took longer.

I AM NOT · 2023

I AM NOT  began with the names I had been called during the relationship. I had kept track of them, and eventually I realized I wanted to do something with that record instead of allowing those words to remain only as evidence of how someone else had defined me.

I transferred a photograph of myself onto fabric and hand embroidered the words across the image. The act of stitching them was deliberate. I had to sit with each one, acknowledge it, and then place it somewhere outside of myself.

The title became my response. The words may have been said about me, but they were not mine to accept as truth.

I kept track of the names I was called so I could remind myself what I am not.

DETAIL FROM I LOVE ME · 8 × 8 × 0.25 INCHES · COTTON · EMBROIDERY FLOSS · HAND EMBROIDERY

I WROTE THIS SONG FOR YOU. · 2025

Music had always been important to both of us. Later in the relationship, he began learning songs I loved, seemingly hoping that sharing something meaningful to me would change how I felt about him or about us.

By then, it was too late. The songs could still mean something to me, but they could not undo what had happened or restore the relationship.

I wrote this song for you. grew out of that contradiction. Music can be intimate, nostalgic, persuasive, and deeply personal, but it cannot repair harm simply because the right song is offered at the right moment.

The piece looks back at that attempt to reconnect through something we both cared about and reclaims the gesture on my own terms. The title sounds like an offering, but the work is ultimately about recognizing that affection, familiarity, and shared interests are not enough to rebuild something that has already been broken.

PROCESS + MAKING

Hand embroidery became an important part of these works because it forced me to spend time with the language.

Stitching a word by hand is slow. You cannot move through it without looking at it, repeating it, and physically building it one mark at a time. That mattered to me, especially when the words were connected to experiences I was still trying to understand.

The process gave me a way to take language that had once felt imposed on me and turn it into something deliberate. I chose the words, the placement, the materials, and how each statement would ultimately be seen.

Across all three works, embroidery became more than a technique. It became part of the act of reclaiming control over the language itself.

HAND EMBROIDERY · COTTON · EMBROIDERY FLOSS · PHOTO TRANSFER

EXHIBITIONS + RECOGNITION

2025
GASP
Art Saint Louis · St. Louis, Missouri
I AM NOT · I LOVE ME

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