What does it mean, to touch the earth below you?

There are 144,881 federal inmates in the custody of the United States Federal Bureau of Prisons - and my father is one of them. He will continue to be until 2038.

Every phone call begins with an automated message announcing that my call comes from a prisoner before it comes from a father.

Many calls come in when I surround myself with this space, with these weeping willow trees.

With these trees, I grieve, rising with what stands, sitting with what now rests, and sprawling with the wind.

I can’t help but look for you in the land, Dad, the very roots that bind us.

GNAW

GNAW is a found-footage piece recontextualizing the binds of war to the children of servicemembers and the absence of presence in childhood. This piece, while not made explicitly for this project, reflects the grieving process and perspectives I hold for my father's generational traumas, his sentencing, and his absence.