Growing On

Past experiences can often leave a person broken. Figuring out what to do next and how to piece everything back together is never easy, and takes a great deal of time. It’s like falling, and reaching for something above you to grasp onto, but I keep falling and falling, with nothing and no one to hold onto. I’m left empty and praying that maybe, just maybe, I’ll figure out how to fly. It’d be easier if I had wings or a handbook, even. Growing up is a part of discovering every inch of your own mind so you can learn how to control it. How do you control your emotions? How can one forget the bad stuff long enough to allow new memories to copy over?

This body of work represents a disconnect with relationships and growing on from experiences that I’ve allowed to linger and haunt me, preventing me from being open to experiences and people that I could learn so much from. I chose to shoot these digitally, covering my lens with pantyhose to add a filter and fuzziness between the subject and the viewer to further emphasize a disconnect between myself and the relationship. The text included on some of the images are from letters I have received, and included in hopes to exaggerate my reaction to the overwhelming, almost overbearing emotions I feel.

I chose to do this work because it was and is important to overcome the challenge of growing on from the past. Using art for what it is, an expression of oneself to grow, change and discover in hopes of a resolution.