Roads and Red Threads Ideation
These samples mark the beginning of the process for the body of work The Road Back to You. Between the collages with cardboard and the red thread stringing it all together, I realized that while I had spent the last four years learning how to tell other people’s stories, I had never explored my own.
Most American citizens have been irreparably impacted by violence, racism, prejudice, polarization, discrimination, status, or inequality. I’ve been ashamed to bear this cultural identity for most of my life, so I escape to other beautiful countries, treasure other cultures, and share other stories. I believed that being just a white American either disqualified or neutralized my story from relevancy.
The turmoil from the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 married with protests against racism and political corruption contributed to American pride falling to a record low––according to Gallup, less than half of adults (48%) claimed country pride, and half of that (22%) for adults 18-24. It was this same time, when international travel wasn’t an option anymore, that I headed west.
From the canyons and arches in Utah, to the pacific coast highway in California, to the bustling jazz and dance scene in New Orleans, I’ve started to fall in love with my own country again. While the United States still has a lot of work to do, I aim to invite my community to reconcile their relationship with the nation by balancing validity and exposure to some damaging American experiences, with the cathartic beauty of the land. Inspired by the road, the west, classic American and Native American literature and art, combined with the lost American traditions of quilting, weaving, film photography, and collage, I hope to share that despite our individual American experiences, we are all connected to a greater narrative that offers empathy, reconciliation, and hope for the future.
The Road Back to You is a journey that evokes nostalgia for a simpler time—where we write to each other by mail, live out of a suitcase, explore with an open mind, and drive without a destination.
