these are my wonderful parents
      
     
   
  
    
      
        or more like submerging artist ahahahaha
      
     
   
  
    
      
        perpetually feeling uprooted
      
     
   
  
    
      
        it’s probably why I make a lot of work regarding community and belonging
      
     
   
  
    
      
        I recently discovered a summer camp for transgender youth though
      
     
   
  
    
      
        it’s a bittersweet feeling, seeing the kiddos live the childhood you couldn’t even fathom
      
     
   
  
    
      
        it’s constantly on my mind
      
     
   
  
    
      
        the recognition of how inherently fragile it all is
      
     
   
  
    
      
        it’s the reason why I often electroplate these organic figures in copper
      
     
   
  
    
      
        to give them a little armor
      
     
   
  
    
      
        and my mother again, but hyper-muscular this time
      
     
   
  
    
      
        it’s a form of reparenting
      
     
   
  
    
      
        making things for my childhood self
      
     
   
  
    
      
        such as baby shoes of my wildest dreams
      
     
   
  
    
      
        I typically want to make myself smaller
      
     
   
  
    
      
        but occasionally I make larger sculptures too
      
     
   
  
    
      
        a metropolis in which I can envision my creations thriving
      
     
   
  
    
      
        made from materials I forage
      
     
   
  
    
      
        like a raccoon in the dumpster
      
     
   
  
    
      
        I made this from various electronic components
      
     
   
  
    
      
        a compass clock that only points to Japan
      
     
   
  
  
    
      
        a part of me still resides there
      
     
   
  
    
      
        a number of years ago I had a bilateral orchiectomy, the removal of both testicles
      
     
   
  
    
      
        since then, I began to experience these vivid dreams of seed pods germinating
      
     
   
  
    
      
        sending their tentacles down into the cool ground as they yearned upwards, towards the blazing sun
      
     
   
  
    
      
        they had been transported down to an ecological landfill in the mountains of Miyoshi, on Shikoku island
      
     
   
  
    
      
        after the surgery, there was a period of time where I felt barren
      
     
   
  
    
      
        since then though, my studio is teeming with life
      
     
   
  
    
      
        miniature patchwork children
      
     
   
  
    
      
        made from foraged plants on my walks
      
     
   
  
    
      
        a practice influenced by my time spent in non-directive play therapy sessions
      
     
   
  
    
      
        to help make better sense of what aspects of my identity makes me feel grounded
      
     
   
  
    
      
        I believe it could do the same for others
      
     
   
  
    
      
        currently, I do so through leading workshops where participants are invited to mold themselves out of foraged materials
      
     
   
  
    
      
        it’s a light-hearted way by which we can trek the infinite variations of ourselves
      
     
   
  
    
      
        of the things we do not witness but embody
      
     
   
  
  
    
      
        to stretch the edges of our corporeal bodies
      
     
   
  
    
      
        inspired by images of people with Olecranon Bursitis
      
     
   
  
    
      
        the desire to become a pterosaur
      
     
   
  
    
      
        so as to finally spread my wings
      
     
   
  
    
      
        and depart to another realm