The boxed series and self portraits came at a time when I was going thru a very introspective period in my life. I had just experienced a somewhat traumatic heartbreak, and it literally forced me to deconstruct every illusion I had found comfort in. And as a result I felt disconnected from reality. All the compartments that I had created throughout my life became undone, and there was no way I would put them back together. But as the dust was beginning to settle and I could see this for the blessing and opportunity it was, did I realize that all the ‘stuff’ I had stored in those compartments did not belong to me. I had been carrying around other people’s projections of who I should be, what I should be, how I should be, etc. The baggage was not mine. For a second I felt elated. But wait, so... who am I without the baggage. And then began the journey of stepping outside the box. And I consciously deconstructed the boxes that were there. And I realized that we step out of one box to just a bigger more comfortable one and then again and then again, it’s a constant process of stepping out of the box, into a bigger one. Until we can’t no more and we just choose to exist without being ‘packaged’.
