Past // Presence

Past Presence bears my story honestly through its 96 pages of poetry, photography, and personal documents like letters and scrapbook pages. Its story weaves between lyric poems that follow four characters that represent the loves of my life: my mom, my first love, my rapist, and my partner— now spouse. Their characterizations in turn create a picture of my five year journey of PTSD recovery.

The vulnerability that begat this collection of images, words, and artifacts culminates in a document that illustrates how heartache transmutes into love, and how that love can live in a person.

This project was acquired by the Tretter Collection and shown in three gallery shows in 2025.

Gallery shows:

MCBA New Editions

Trust the Hours

The Shape of Absence