SOLACE THROUGH THE SEASON

Outside Inside is a meditation on the seasons of life—reflecting on both my inner world, and the outer world as seen my backyard in Madison, Wisconsin.

2020-2022

Printed 2023

The season of silence and stillness. 
As life in the outer world becomes barren,
I am pressed to turn
my attention inward
and make peace
with liminal spaces.

Icicles

A momentary break in the cold.
Ice thaws, sending water droplets creeping under gravity toward the furthest edges. 

Icicles stretch delicately longer and
trace each moment of radiant warmth. 
Encroaching, the freeze of night sets in
to crystallize the evidence of passing time. 

The season of my renewal.
I envision the beauty
of my own potential,
and dream of what more
is left for me to be.
Each day I rediscover
the capacity to surprise myself 
in the process of sculpting a life 
that will never be lived again.

Resilience

Life brims with evidence 
of remarkable resilience. 
Broken branches heal,
frail creatures unite, 
and all things grow.

As long as my spirit
holds the will to persist,
my mind and body acclimate, 
and life will forge on.

I’m reminded in my life daily,
after coming back from
what I thought was insurmountable, 
that through sheer force of will
I can accomplish things
I never thought possible.

A season of ecstasy, 
when the world is serene 
and contentment is effortless. 
When I find bliss in simply being present. 
When my spirit is vibrant
and I savor life 
for no more and no less 
than exactly what it is.

Outside I

Open heart,
waves of warmth
wash over my skin 
seeping into every cell.

The boundaries 
between
the sun and
my skin 
dissolve.

The rhythm of 
my heart is left 
exposed
to the breeze.
My soul becomes
the glow of 
golden light. 

The season in which
I hold gratitude for
all that once was,
and embrace the 
inevitability of change.
I seek peace in transitory spaces, 
release my grip on the past, 
and look toward the future 
with optimism and imagination.

Leafs I

My fate is unknowable 
through the eyes of a leaf. 
The best days of my life 
would be spent in belief 
that attachment to a tree 
was everything for me. 
I’d find friendship in
my neighboring leafs, 
imagining we would
live and breathe
as one collective canopy. 

But alas I dry,
I wither, and fall, 
only to be lifted
by the wind
to a foreign distance, 
unveiling wondrous 
new horizons
all in a flash 
at the end 
of a simple, 
static life.

Poetic testaments to the tales of our bodies

Each body tells the story of a unique individual history—some carrying deep wounds and rich redemption arcs. For each participant in this collection, a poem was written, designed, and painted to honor their journey.

Printed 2024

This was once a fortress
with walls built thick
to maximize the distance 
between my heart and the world.

The more there was to touch
I sought safety in being untouchable.
the more there was to see
I sought safety in being invisible.

Self protection was self destruction. 
I owe this body everything
for never giving up on me
when I gave up on it. 

My body stood strong on 
its mission to witness life. 
Now I savor my presence 
for the tangible gift it is.

This body looks out of ordinary
to tell a story out of ordinary.
This skin bears evidence of resilience 
of my radical capacity to transform.

This skin has prominent character
to keep me reminded of the promise 
that with purpose and persistence
I am capable of the impossible. 

NORTHEASTERN ABANDONMENT AND REFLECTIONS ON permanence

A photographic record and reflection on the passage of time, uncovered by wandering through the rural Northeast.

Printed 2018

Through passing time, everything we take from nature will be returned to it. The more power we alot to nature, we live more freely, and our belongings are stripped away— reentered into the cycle of birth and decay.

An item’s decay writes the memoir
of our relationship with the inanimate. 
Each relic, a time capsule, revealing the untimely truth of when and why we let go.

No one knows where I am, no one is waiting for me, no one expects anything of me here. Rudimentary existence makes its reveal today.

Perhaps if I lay in the grass, 
I will feel it welcome me, 
feel as it grows around me. 
Perhaps if I lay there, 
my perception of time will slow 
to the speed of its growth. 
As I merge with the elements, 
they remind me of my 
resemblance to the dust. 

I am a culmination
of my environment—
a merging of forces within flesh.
I am nothing alone, but everything. 

Midwestern abandonment + reflections on escapism

A book of travel photography and diary entries exploring the hidden corners of rural midwestern towns. Abandoned relics whisper their emotional histories. Everywhere Else is their record.

Printed 2019

Everywhere Else
is what you must leave to find. 
It is a distinctly separate state of mind.
Being there is being lost,
and feeling more alive because of it. 

Everywhere Else is an escapist’s haven:
built on belief that things would be different
if you changed your location—
that whatever burdened you at home
would cease to exist if you left it behind. 

Everywhere else is anywhere that is not here,
and it’s the only place I want to be,
no matter where I am. 

Everywhere else is everything. 
The more one realizes she is surrounded by it, 
the less she can find a distinction between 
where she ends and where it begins. 
What was once my construct of everywhere else 
is being dismantled as I am absorbed by it. 

discovering art in natural forms

Cosmic Composition is a visual journey through the structural levels of the universe, from quantum fields to the multiverses. Each topic is presented with an existential twist and striking visual experience to help readers discover beauty in places they may have never looked.

Printed 2015