Disney

Dedicated to Claire C.

Disney. Where fairytales are life, the bad guys get what they deserve, and the beautiful couples lives happily ever after. Where Cinderella escapes her wicked stepmother, and Ariel gets to walk on land. Where there's a prince for every princess.

Today's society pitches itself around these beautiful fairytales. Children grow up listening to happily ever after stories while their parents scream and fight in the other room. They watch movies where the bad guy is murdered, and they cheer, but a couple doors down, a child just few years their senior is being raped.

Why are we sucked into this heterosexual idealistic world where everyone finds true love? Where life is fair? Why does this falsified world appeal to us when we know our own world is so absolutely flawed?

It's because human beings are naturally good, and hopeful. We want the world to be a Disneyland, where everything is fair and safe, and love is conditional. No Disney princess has been dumped, and no Disney prince has pursued another man. Even Disney has flaws.

It's not that an improved, real-life DisneyWorld is impossible. It's simply that you cannot sit around and hope for the world to turn to Disney. You have to get out there and make it happen.

You have to build your own, personal Disneyland.

It takes risks and heartbreak, and justice is not always taken upon those who deserve it. But you can find your own prince or princess. You can find unconditional love and live happily ever after.

So don't wait for Disney. Go create it.

Differences

From 2009.

Everyone is different. We all have the same basic mold - head, torso, legs, arms - but we aren't meant to be the same. Our colors, our shapes, and our preferences vary, as they should. I cannot be you and you cannot be me. That's how it's supposed to be.

This piece is meant to express our differences by playing on many of our senses: the texture of each yarn and paint is different, as are their colors. The one thing they have in common is that they are yarn. Likewise, we are all people and that is the only true characteristic we have in common. Some people are tall, others short; one's color is red, while another's is purple; many being are fuzzy, though just as many are strong and bold. There are many levels of differences, and people can draw similarities wherever they wish. However, when you really get down to it, the only thing we all have in common is our species.

Pebble

In each and every smile

In each and every soul

There is a shining pebble

Small, but bright as gold.

Empty Space

There's this empty space

beside me in bed

where you should be

resting your head.

Everything in the world

reminds me of you

when I was my hair

with your same shampoo -

when I'm folding laundry

and I feel you there -

with your arms wrapped around me,

knowing you care.

There's this empty space

beside me in bed

and I expect you with me

but am alone instead.