In 2023 I received a research fellowship at the New York Public Library to research 19th-century “friendship albums”—scrapbooks made by-and-for women containing poetry, drawings, jokes, and journal entries. These albums subtly upended book-ish expectations, prioritizing collaborative creativity over individual voices and additive processes over polished products. My paintings—inspired by my real friends—take cues from the albums’ accumulative compositions, scrap-y nature, and wordplay. The accompanying zine includes drawings of the albums, words from them, and my own writings, drawings, and acrostic poems.

 

Photos are by Shark Senesac and Josh Schaedel.