Paper Letters explores the stories we tell in order to make sense of our experiences. These stories become the building blocks of our identity and shape our perceptions of events happening all around us, what psychologists refer to as “narrative identity.” If we wish to meaningfully transform ourselves and the way we see the world, we must first deconstruct our stories. From the familiar and sometimes difficult raw materials that remain, we can create new narratives and new identities.

As an act of therapeutic release, I have been journaling and hand-lettering script since childhood, giving physical form to my thoughts and feelings. In Paper Letters, I deconstruct, disfigure, and distort these “sloppy” stream of consciousness writings – old journals, hand-lettered transcriptions of emails and instant messages, and letters written but never sent. The material’s transformation from something smooth, rigid, flat, and fixed in dimension into something irregular, flexible, and three-dimensional parallels the shifting of my stories. Through the repetitive processes of cutting, folding, stitching, and pleating, I transform the original text to the point of redirecting its power; stringing together the remnants to create something new.

Reshape
Silk organza naturally dyed and painted with coreopsis, beads
2024
Photography Assistant: Colin Enquist

Loving you hurt more
Paper, tape, cotton, wire
2018

I hold myself close
Paper, beads, fiber optics
2024

Bonds
Handspun wool, linen, paper, mixed media
2019

A puddle with lips
Paper, cotton thread, beads
2023

Things I’ve never told anyone (before)
Paper, wooden beads, cotton string
2022

Encroaching
Vellum, cotton thread, water based pens
2021

Double Standards
Vellum, felt tip pen, thread, glass beads
2022

Smooth Talker
Vellum, felt tip pen, thread, glass beads
2022

It’s all I can see
Paper, tape
2019

Paper Letters
Video
2024

The artist would like to thank: Alex Henry, Carlene Kurdziel, Chelsey Thiessen, Colin Enquist, Darren Pottie, Francesca Carella Arfinengo, Sean McLachlan, Tammy Sutherland, and MHC Gallery for their contributions to this exhibition.

Paper Letters has been created with the generous support of the Winnipeg Arts Council with funding from the City of Winnipeg, and Arts AccessAbility Network Manitoba.

Read The Uniter’s Article “Stories on the mend”
Read Classic 107’s Article