This piece was exclusively private for several years. However, as Museum of Me is a work of self-exposure, I invite you to see what I share with you as art--as art. 

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Portrait: Carlos Torres Garzón

Pyramid Lake, Nevada; August 2015 

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Between 2013 and 2015 I participated in one of those on-again off-again, brutally toxic relationships. In the summer of 2015, I moved to Los Angeles for a fresh start, where I stumbled into the invitation to go to Burning Man with a friendly group of complete strangers...the very same day.

 

I seized the opportunity with exhilaration, informing my former partner that I would be intentionally without cell signal for the next two life-transforming weeks.

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As our RV drove up to Black Rock City from L.A., we made a stop at Pyramid Lake, Nevada. Everyone got naked and jumped in the water. It was for me a ritual of rebirth, a commitment to my new life made with the purity of nakedness, trust in my Right Path to emerge from a new unknown, and true freedom from all that past I'd left behind. At this moment, a member of our group, former Getty Images photographer Carlos Torres Garzón, offered to take my photo.

 

Later printed, I made this 2-element collage with my portrait as a reminder of my freedom and that I am always "here," in the spirit of that moment: Naked in the eyes of God, empowered to take control of my life and what I create with it. 

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