Ongoing Junior Thesis Work (January 2024 - Present)
My name is incorrect on the tombstone I never asked for. I am disconnected, scattered, and lonely. I find myself somewhere in between forced girlhood and a longing for boyhood. While I navigate the never ending journey of finding myself as a transgender individual, I am constantly searching to feel comfort inside my body.
Countless flakes of skin are scattered throughout my home while my mind is leaking out of my head. Keratosis Follicularis is the only constant that I have had. The incurable genetic skin condition consumes every inch of my body. I spend durations of my day examining my skin and re-applying numerous medicated lotions all in hope that it will become just a little more manageable; for the pain to subside for a singular moment allowing relief to seep its way in.
Down to the Quick brings you into my world of nails so deep, picking the layers of my skin covered in blood and soaking with obsession. I am holding on to the everlasting need to appear to have it perfectly together. All while feeling perpetually confused. I am being rebuilt from the ground up, and until I know what that means nothing is finished or complete but rather an intertwined web of questions waiting to be answered.
