Typical Love Story

Original Artist Statement, 2018

In the year of 2017, I began to create art around the two most significant people that shaped the tumultuous experiences from 2015 to where I am today.

I didn't think of myself as an artist for a long time. In the midst of ingrained stoicism, the origins of which I am unsure, I didn't know how else to express myself. Art became a meditative exercise for me on those nights of me hyperventilating, crying alone, in my bed. It allowed me to have the conversations with myself and others that I didn't know how to.

Updated Artist Statement, 2026

10 years after the initial rupture, looking back at this piece, my heart breaks for the woman who had to navigate an unthinkable reality alone. When I wrote those words “I am not okay, and that is okay” I didn’t think that almost a decade later, I would still feel the same way.

It has taken this long for me to deeply understand the weight of what happened, and how interrelated certain events were with this rupture.

I may never really be okay, as those of us who have had to navigate complex trauma can’t be. But I am here, and determined to make a life worth living.

For a long time,

I held so much anger in my heart.

I felt angry for the injustices that I endured.

I felt angry for the betrayal that I experienced.

I felt angry for the time that I lost.

But most of all

I felt angry

at myself

for not being able to be the person

who I thought I was