Bad Dogs

"Bad Dogs" centers around visits to my childhood home-turned-junkyard over the past decade. Through a cathartic practice of collaborative portraiture and assemblage, I navigate family history, hoarding disorder, and my relationship with my father.

The woods surrounding my childhood home conceal over thirty cars, a bus, a bread truck, and many sailboats. Inside, three stories are packed floor to ceiling. My dad’s hoarding disorder manifested after my parents’ divorce when I was eleven, and the junkyard grew with me.

The ongoing series “Bad Dogs” centers around my visits to my childhood home-turned-junkyard over the past decade. In the beginning, I haunted the property like a ghost, photographing scenes of objects that felt both familiar and foreign. The land holds a geological timeline of my family history, and I dug for artifacts of identity in the strata. I shifted my attention to my dad out of a desire to be present and rebuild our relationship. His ever-growing accumulations had pushed us apart when I was a teenager, but together we have found a way to creatively communicate across our greatest barrier. His enthusiasm to make art together is an act of love that I hold protectively. 

My dad and I construct and dismantle ephemeral assemblages from the debris, transforming obstacles into a shared artistic language. Each piece is intuitively constructed based on form and color, relying on a careful balance to stay together. This practice creates a non-judgmental space for us to work together. The duration of this project reveals the brevity of human time, reflected in the evolving lines on our faces, set against the enduring presence of the materials on the property. Our collaborative portraits now show our morphing roles as father, daughter, friends, and caregivers. Bad Dogs is our ongoing commitment to art and each other. It serves as a cathartic tool for reciprocity, celebrating our evolving relationship and the power of art to repair and heal. I share our story to honor my dad, our journey, and what we continue to build.