'A different kind of love letter.'

During the first two world wars, when supplies were low, soldiers would resort to pouring their heart out on any piece of paper they could find; so their sweethearts back home often received old cigarette boxes with love letters written on them.

Lovers would rush to their mailboxes, much like we now rush to our dm’s, in pursuit of a romantic thrill; a slice of soul wrapped up in a box. I like that idea of being addicted to someone, rather than something.

While creating this artwork, I pictured glamorous, Hollywood femme fatales of the past, putting pure fire to their lips + breathing in their lost lover’s last words. I like to think they got buzzed on love.

I first sketched this concept out in Paris in 2016. It took me 2 years to perfect this idea. I wanted to do something about love letters + addiction, as I had a pen pal of sorts for a long time I was mad about. He was also a writer.

If you took everything we ever wrote to each other + laid it out on a football field, you’d fill the field. But we had an intimacy online that we couldn’t reconcile in real life.

I think there’s a look a man gives you when he wants you- like he’s thought about you naked + knows exactly what he’d like to do about it. My lovely friend never looked at me like that (bless).

For close to a decade, I watched him go from high school sweetheart, to girlfriend, to one lover after another, all while exchanging notes on life.

Our love story was one that never started. It exists online somewhere, in between code + keys. But it never became real. Like all good unrequited romances, it came to a bittersweet end + I eventually let my friend go.

I thought blooming cigarette boxes- an older kind of love letter- would be a bittersweet way of paying homage to this particular paper romance.

In 2018, I spent many hours tucked away under my house in this dank little floral cave, working on this series. It became a bit of a floral graveyard in the end (lucky I like to use old blooms too). I make everything in my artwork by hand first, often assembling, dismantling, and re-assembling each piece multiple times. The tiniest petal out of place will throw off the intricate little patterns I’m trying to create in my work.

My style is influenced by Gucci x Alice in Wonderland. Trippy as balls + opulent as opium.

Each piece took several days (and between 40 and 50 attempts) to complete due to the scale and complexity of the floral elements.
They are mixed media works, part installation art, part photography, part charcoal.

The series was a smash-hit; it sold out in a day.

I'm proud of every single one.