Personal Branding
Over the course of my time on social media, I have developed for myself a distinct and easily recognizable persona that is essentially a melding of optic excess with captions that veer towards the self-deprecating, and almost always have a humorous—if nihilist—spin. In a time of increasingly saturated social spaces, my approach has been defined by saturation itself. Irreverent, stream-of-consciousness narrative play in cooperation with an overwhelming visual landscape has become my signature, and I find it to be a fairly singular approach. My content can feel overwhelming to consume, but it lingers in people’s memories—an achievement of which I am very proud, given the contemporary need to distinguish oneself amidst the increasingly crowded environments that make up the bulk of online spaces.
The Road Trip Series
In June of 2017 I embarked on a solo cross-country road trip as I hauled myself and worldly possessions back to my hometown of Seattle after graduating from Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York. I rambled my way across America in my little Hyundai Elantra, plotting my course using a GPS-based app that lists the most obscure tourist attractions by region. Destinations included the Hormel SPAM museum, a nudist colony in rural Indiana (admittedly, the nudism angle was unknown to me until my arrival thereat—I had come in innocence, seeking a leg-shaped sundial), the National Presidential Wax Museum, and the Ingalls Family Homestead of “Little House on the Prairie” fame. I chronicled my adventures with a series of Instagram collage posts that relayed the stories of my journey, and in doing so developed a following of friends and acquaintances who eagerly awaited these updates on my meanderings. Though it is a reflection of my sensibilities and style at the time of my graduation (and I have undergone many personal and professional changes in the five years since), at its core this series remains an accurate reflection of my creative essence. The road trip series is illustrative of my innate gravitation towards visual extremity, as well as my proclivity for storytelling and skill for distinctive content creation.
"Le Peen"
In college I was part of a nostalgia-pop a cappella group with semiannual themed performances, and in my senior year we chose the theme “bachelorette party.” I was in charge of procuring decorations for our venue, and took it upon myself to construct for our concert the most classic of bachelorette accessories: the penis piñata. With the support of my long-suffering housemates, I annexed our living room and made it into my papier-mâché studio, where I painstakingly fashioned the concert’s centerpiece, complete with pipe cleaner pubes. I even reached out to former art teachers for advice on decoration and construction—many thanks are due to Ms. Dana Bettinger for the inspired inclusion of lipstick prints. I documented my efforts on social media, building anticipation for the upcoming performance and further cementing my chaotic aesthetic lovingly described by my best friend as “clown chic.”
