let it happen then let it pass 2

2017-2020. let it happen then let it pass 2 was created in response to its predecessor in 2016. Its working title was “Hindsight,” because in hindsight, much of my work at the time was devoted to my self-hatred. Like the Anthony Ervin quote I began with, I became high on my own melancholy and depression. I was devoted to make myself suffer because it was my normal, my familiar. And in hindsight, too often do artists make art about suffering. And too often do artists suffer, and are expected to suffer, for their art. It was and is hard to break these patterns. So in 2016 I created the project as a psychological practice, a wish-fulfillment of positivity, and a necessary shock to my system.

These poems and photos were created through much of 2017-2018. In that time, I was finally formally diagnosed with depression. I was finally placed on antidepressants. And I was finally in the care of therapists who I trusted, and was willing to work with. And in that time, I made progress and found time to reflect.

In let it happen 1 healing oceans and sickening deserts were dichotomized, analyzing past and present states of mind, page by page and pair by pair. But now the past and present being compared are the versions themselves. The sequel no longer ponders the desert, but rather the waters I so desperately admired, then turns to the forests I had frequented, so old and so strong.

But while the pieces were made in 2017-2018, it took an actual pandemic and state-imposed quarantine for me to finally put the pieces together. And yet… what a gift it was to revisit these thoughts, still fresh from cathartic sessions, still buzzing with the newfound clarity and confidence Zoloft was bestowing me. What better time to be reminded that these temporary lows will never last.