Contained messes is about the state of isolation I had reached after certain experiences in college left me with no other choice but to fully retreat to my bedroom and retire my social life altogether. By my senior year, I found myself trapped in a stronghold of my own making where I couldn’t think beyond the massive walls I built. The only voice of reason I could hear was that of my own toxic inner critic (we made Contained Messes together). The project itself is a reflection on on this condition and its conception acted as a latter to climb out and over the walls and boundaries I built. I wanted to attempt to communicate how this condition made me feel manic but locked in a room with nothing in it and every thought was just a recycled version of the last, so I used whatever residue, scraps, or waste I had from the previous sculpture for the making of the next sculpture: the pile of dirt swept under the rug consisted of the floor sweepings from my studio throughout the project, the lint roller sheets were garnished with hair, dirt, glitter, and who knows what from the dirty rug in my living room, candy wrappers that allude to my bad teeth, nylons stuffed with scraps from other sculptures, and plastic I had set down when painting for class. The installation also features elements from personal collections and obsessions that spill secrets and residue from past lives and the one I live now - elevating the lows and celebrating them because they are in the past and sometimes too informative to resent.