This project, for me, was more of my personal journal, and giving myself the opportunity to open up and finally let go of all the things that I carry on a daily basis. We hold on to some of the smallest things, sacrificing our time and energy, when all we have to do is take a breath and let it go. It was a chance for me to get ME back, and invites others to do the same. It brings to light the fact that each encounter we dwell on, pieces of us are being stolen and if you let it continue, there will be nothing of you left.

...and so the process began. I began this journey of journaling and writing down everything that I remember...things from last week, things from a month ago, things that happened to me over 10 years ago. These moments were the smallest things that don't even matter in the grand scheme of things, and yet I was holding on - no clinging on- to them. These are the moments I started giving pieces of myself away. These moments were my Documented Thefts. I decided to create shadowboxes because that is how precious I was treating these moments. So why not just put them on a shelf and leave them there? Next step...I bought a table saw and got to work.

I wanted every element of this project to be hand crafted. I wasn't worried about perfection. It was about the experience and the

process of going through it. 

I used collage techniques with paint, printed transparencies and other found objects to create the "door" for each story I told. In the inside, of the shadowboxes were my stories explaining which part of me was stolen with the person's name blacked out with paint. Titles range from Do Unto Others, about someone I cared for who disappeared without a trace and no explanation of what happened, to A Hard Pill to Swallow, which was about a friend who confided in me about a drug problem and was about to lose their job. I put my neck on the line to fight for his job with the owner and took responsibility for him, but he just decided not to show up because he "wasn't feeling it." There's even "No Pizza For Me," which highlights my best friends in middle school not sharing their pizza. So many stories that will keep you laughing...or judging me! But that wasn't all...

I wanted to give everyone the opportunity to get some things off of their chest and give the viewers the opportunity to let something go as well. As a part of the exhibition, there were cards where the viewer could write down a moment that they think it is time to let go of and place it in a box that I made. They would in turn take someone else's story. They were completely anonymous, but the goal was to bring attention to the cycle that happens with each encounter. On one hand you have the people who are giving something up. And on the other hand, you have those who are running off with everything the other person has to offer, and sometimes they don't even know it.