The process of Forgive, 2017 surfaced from an experience at the lake during a time I was feeling extremely lost and numb by my
surroundings; while the weather was brewing up a storm one summer evening, I made it a goal to still go swimming. This experience at the lake was one of the most exhilarating and freeing moment of my life. The dangerous white capped waves pulled me under the surface, instilling deep fear around the idea of death and that fear made me feel alive. After this emotional and chaotic experience, I kept thinking of ways to recapture my emotions to share with others. The word map is an important reference to this piece and many other works of mine because the words on the map help me target what I want to convey. Forgive, 2017 is an important part of my evolving artist process because these series of photographs remind me that the feelings of burden and baggage carry a whole lot more than simply pain, suffering and trauma. They remind me that my feelings of displacement are temporary, and through my trauma and chaos I experience, there is always something changing, something of a new sort of rebirth and growth.