In the 1950s, my great aunt was stationed with The Red Cross in Orleans, France. This wasn't her first overseas assignment, but it's the one she documented most thoroughly.

She sent home letters, hundreds of prints and negatives, postcards, and luggage tags from her weekend trips to nearby places.

These things ended up in a box and went unsorted for years. During the pandemic, I opened the box at last, and let its contents shape my creative process in a new way that allowed me to stay home, but stay inspired. I connected with the letters as art objects, creating still lives inspired by paper art sculpture. As I spent time with them, I gained insights into her personal history, the history we share as a family, and the history we share as a nation. As a result, the project became a meditation on postwar America and what it means to make sacrifices for a cause greater than ourselves.