For our shared book arts show, Dos-a-Dos II, at the Richard B. Talkin Gallery in 2022, my friend Lenett "Mama Nef" Partlow-Myrick and I co-created a piece as the focal point of the room -- with each of our works displayed on one side of a large accordian structure. Early on in the pandemic, as Nef and I talked about the state of the world together, we became closer as friends, and realized that although our lives were very different, we had significant threads in common beyond our shared love of book art. The pieces shown here represent the panels I created around the themes of our relationships with our mothers, our childhoods, our lineage, and the friendship we share, and Lenett created four panels of her own around the same themes. All eight panels were shown together, with mine on one side and Nef's on the other. Together, they represent a love that transcends our art and the culmination of a wonderful creative process we made for ourselves.
I made the background paper for my panels myself out of glue and torn paper bags, and then used embroidery and collage with Xeroxed family photos, my home town newspaper, and other materials to tell my part of the story.