Left to right: 12.29.23, 2023; 12.31.23-1.1.24, 2024, 8.31.24, 2024, and 9.1.24, 2024

Images by: Tonal Simmons

I am very excited to announce that the Haggerty Museum of Art in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, has acquired four Journal Series weavings: 12.29.23, 12.31.23-1.1.24, 8.31.24, and 9.1.24, for their permanent collection.

Thank you to the Haggerty’s Collections Committee and John McKinnon, the Director of the Haggerty Museum of Art, for their generosity and support for my work on the loss of my grandparents.

I want to express my gratitude to curators Christopher Jobson and Grace Ebert of Colossal for their incredible support and for inviting me to exhibit alongside such incredible artists in the No One Knows All It Takes exhibition. Their kindness and willingness to share my work with so many others who are also affected by caregiving and the loss of a loved one is something I am forever grateful for.

These four journals were exhibited in Haggerty's recent 2025 group exhibition, No One Knows All It Takes, curated by Christopher Jobson and Grace Ebert of Colossal. These journals hold deep significance for me because 12.29.23 and 12.31.23-1.1.24 were created after my Papa George passed away on December 18, 2023. Journals 8.31.24 and 9.1.24 were created after my Mema passed away on August 25, 2024.

Journals 12.29.23 and 12.31.23-1.1.24 were woven with white cotton weft taken from my Papa George's hospital blanket, and I used objects from their home, including a broken basement tile and a ribbon from a sympathy bouquet given by my Uncle Steve and two cousins, Samantha and Lauren.

Journals 8.31.24 and 9.1.24 were woven with one of the medical gowns my mom and I would use for my Mema, and with decorative flowers my Mema had bought shortly after realizing she would have difficulty caring for her live plants due to an Alzheimer’s diagnosis in 2014.