During my fellowship with Buchanan Arts, I had a goal to re-focus my art practice to public-facing art. After a year of many mural projects falling through, it was exciting when Alex Lockwood, owner of Elephant Gallery in Nashville, was willing to give me an entire wall of his building for painting murals on. He also gave me full artistic freedom, which was refreshing after a year of drawing sketches for projects that would never actually happen. I decided to take advantage of the opportunity to create something completely based on what I wanted to make. The piece only takes up one edge of the wall, with plans to add other small murals through the whole wall throughout the rest of the fellowship.

I’m Sorry, I Love You” is a piece about how overwhelmingly cruel the world has felt. I’ve been thinking a lot about the violence in the world. No matter how many times I think of something specific to say on the matter, I can’t find much to say. So many people have already said everything there is to say on these matters. Action is so important right now, for so many reasons. There’s a lot of terrible things happening, and this piece isn’t about comforting myself. All I want to say to everyone in the world, especially those suffering the most, is “I’m sorry, I love you”. This piece is my statement on all of it, while also serving as a reminder to myself that I want my actions, inside and outside of my art practice, to reflect what I believe in. As angry as the world makes me sometimes, my drive to keep going comes from the fact that I believe we all must care about and love each other to create a better world.