Everything I’ve Ever Loved in a Box

I’ve owned the Fujifilm Instax Wide 300 for well over a decade now. I love photos. I never know when my last one will be my last— so I just keep on taking pictures.

Ten years of birthdays, vacations, baby showers, men I loved, the girls, too. Photos taken by others of me. Crazy accidental double exposures- like art imitating life, or is it life imitating art, at this point? All sitting in a box, for what? To collect dust? To privately mourn the moments of my life?

I can comfortably say the last ten years of my life, has been heavy. Difficult. Traumatic. To heal from this time- I’ve created this project. To take it from out it’s box, before it’s already gone…and to share what beautiful moments I got to have through this one incredibly adventurous life.

To remember.

To honor.

And to celebrate and love life’s moments.

I don’t know how this will pan out. Not sure where to go from here. I’ll have to start to curate themes and time periods and people and adventures, yadda yadda. I guess that’s the best part about art right? It’s the journey… not the destination.

I am just grateful I am creating again. And brave enough to share. I was once told that the universe rewards you for sharing your creativity with the world. I only have to believe that is true.

I sincerely hope you enjoy. Remember— it’s everything I’ve ever loved in a box. To leave proof that I did love, and I loved hard, and I just want to share that love always.

A little bit about me:

If all goes well, I plan to share other photography I have taken. Lucky for me, my ex-boyfriend is a truly talented photographer… and over the years we were together he took amazing photos of me and my loved ones. I will link with his information when appropriate to give him credit. Really, you should check out his stuff. He’s got a gift, and it would be a waste to not share it with the community.

I also write poetry, paint, and make collages:

Let’s not get it twisted, okay? I am not a professional artist. I didn’t go to art school. In fact, my freshman year of high school I took an art class and dropped it immediately because I couldn’t do the first assignment: draw your shoe. Literally, couldn’t even start it or begin to conceptualize it in my mind. I cried I was so embarrased— yeah I’m a crier.

I didn’t major in creative writing, photography, or literature. I have been writing since I was ten. Poems and short stories. Less stories now, more poetry. I never saved anything I wrote until the last 4 years.

I currently work in big tech, which allows me to be creative in some aspects. But it is not my wheelhouse of creativity, to be honest. Everything I know I have learned and worked hard to master.

Now if I could just master drawing my own dang shoe…

Sometimes the thought of making money off my process makes me feel gross sometimes. Because really, this is all for me.

It isn’t so much about profiting off my art- as it is just making someone feel something—anything.

Now, I’ve been dragging my feet all morning setting this up and introducing myself… I have got to get to my real job and day dream throughout the day which photos I’ll share next, which perfect flower or angle or face will I capture next, and how will I share it with people who want it.

À la prochaine!