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Interiors
Alcoholics Anonymous, Folio Paper, Ink
2025
Interiors acts as a eulogy, an ode, a reflection, and a distancing. Folio paper is nestled within my well loved copy of “Alcoholic’s Anonymous,” with illustrated imagery overlaid of RX bottles for both oral and injectable substances. Interiors memorializes and mourns the 18 year old sitting in meetings at 7am, concerned about whether my psych medications disqualified him from my seat. The piece re-engages with a text that has long been collecting dust, bringing vitality, celebration, and renewed purpose to a once vital lifeline in day to day life. The illustrated imagery reckons with the internal battle of negotiating relations to substances in expansive ways. For me, the use of an injectable needle once a week is a fact of life, as is staying on track with pharmaceutical chemicals which help stabilize my mood. In or out of the program, over or under the counter, I have been, am, and will likely always be reliant on and in relation with substances. This piece is a love letter to that reality, a warm hug to the 18 year old sitting at meetings questioning *truly* everything, and a humble reminder to self that more lies in these pages than initially meets the eye.