Twenty-Three Days

Twenty Three Days, 2018, 54”x 26”
12x12 inch images mounted on plexiglass; magnet wall mounts

Twenty-Three Days is a collection of photographs about coming to terms with the pain of waging a silent, life long battle against food. An eating disorder ignored and endorsed under the façade of a fat girl on a diet led to this examination of consumption in all its traumatic forms.

Twenty-Three Days. The longest I lasted without food before crashing. Also the number of years it took me to some to terms with my eating disorder. Twenty-Three years of anorexic behavior and secret stashes waiting for weakness to let them be consumed.

This collection documents the fat, the scars, the pain, the secrets, the exhaustion and the life of the body that carried me through this battle. I am learning to celebrate the body free from the health, beauty and diet cultures that created and perpetuated my shame and resulting self-harm, and it starts with acknowledgement of its pain, liberation from its shame and appreciation for its survival.

Cover Image Installation Photograph from Hera Gallery’s ’Shame’ Show – National Juried Exhibition in Spring, 2018.