This publication illustrates Dear Diary 1999, a large-scale collage exhibited at Texas State Galleries in 2022. While I was both the artist and designer on this project, I had the liberty of understanding exactly how the artist desired their work to be exhibited in the catalog. My approach includes full bleed imagery to consistently develop a relationship with the viewer as they study the imagery with each page turn. Included are also brief excerpts and songs that are pulled from the pieces of the collage itself. 

The piece itself is an exploration of self and the personalization of mundane objects. For about four years or so, I gathered little things that I felt held some sort of tie to a moment I wanted to remember. Bottle caps from last time with friends, parking tickets from that one night, poetry that I swore would never see the light of day, guitar tabs, notes passed, and plenty of other things that I felt could speak for themselves. I am pieced together by what these motifs symbolize. What some would argue is trash, are moments to me. They are fleeting joys or aching pains. It is all coming of age. They are explorations of self, fuck ups, rewards, and celebrations. Paired with extremely influential media to me over the years, these simple objects become me. They become what I am, what I have been, and who I will be.