In March of 2020, in a fight against the boredom that came with the beginning of quarantine, I cut my 8th-grade math notebook to shreds, extracting every sketch and doodle from its pages. I spread the drawings out around me, then methodically arranged them onto two pieces of printer paper, fitting them together like puzzle pieces. Later, I packed the sheets into a time capsule which I will open at the end of my senior year.
Entering high school, the collage became an annual ritual. My production expanded to include drawings from every class, and I constructed a long list of procedures to make sure everything turned out just right, in addition to collecting various pieces of data on myself throughout the process (tracking every song reference, for example. There are seventy R.E.M. references here).
I believe the things one choose to draw absentmindedly, with no audience in mind or deep consideration of symbolism, collectively become an incredibly honest snapshot of the artist's mind. Tracking the ebb and flow of various patterns throughout my work has given me genuine insight into my ethos through the years. Why did I draw nearly three times more in my freshman year than I did in my sophomore year? I was isolated and bored and hadn't managed to make good friends even when I was in school. Maybe I drew more to distract myself from my loneliness and the stress of a rocky transition in my life. If you put in the time to look closely, there are a million little clues indicating how I've changed. Frustrated scribbling fades away, replaced by corny references to inside jokes with my friends. My most-referenced song goes from R.E.M.'s 'Swan Swan Hummingbird' to 'What's the Frequency, Kenneth?'. Masks disappear from the faces. I grew up—I'm still growing up—and this is a way I can prove that to myself.
Freshman Year, 1/3 - 16x22 - 2020-2021
Freshman Year, 2/3 - 16x22 - 2020-2021
Freshman Year, 3/3 - 16x22 - 2020-2021
Sophomore Year, 1/2 - 12x16 - 2021-2022
Sophomore Year, 2/2 - 12x16 - 2021-2022
Junior Year, 1/2 - 15.5x20 - 2022-2023
Junior Year, 2/2 - 15.5x20 - 2022-2023
