02
Interiors
Alcoholics Anonymous, Folio Paper, Ink
2025
Interiors acts as a eulogy, an ode, a reflection, and a distancing. Folio paper is nestled within the artist's well loved copy of “Alcoholic’s Anonymous,” with illustrated imagery overlaid of RX bottles for both oral and injectable substances. The artist's hand is cast in plaster, and holds the book open. Interiors memorializes and mourns the 18 year old sitting in meetings at 7am, concerned about whether his psych medications disqualified him from his 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 the artist's day to day life. The illustrated imagery reckons with the internal battle of negotiating relations to substances in expansive ways. For the artist, 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 his mood. In or out of the program, over or under the counter, the artist has been, is, 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.