Extras

Finding Beauty in a Fractured World

In Spring 2026, I was part of the BA/BS Exhibition at Northern Illinois University. Six images, plus a seventh mural piece, were included in the exhibition.

My piece, "Morning's Beauty," was my piece for the mural. When thinking about beauty in a fractured world, I was drawn to the early morning light, before the sunrise. It is a view that very few stop to take in and appreciate, when the world is still asleep. All there is, is you and your thoughts, the still wind and the wet ground, waiting for the day to come.

"Morning's Beauty," Inkjet Print, 32"x32", 2026

Series:

The following images are a series I had created in 2025. All images are of Dollar Generals within Mount Vernon, Ina, Dahlgren, Wayne City, and Bluford, Illinois - all within thirty minutes of my hometown. At the time of creation, there were about seven hundred Dollar General stores in Illinois alone. That would mean that for approximately every eighty miles, there is one Dollar General in the state. I wanted to document them as a show of absurdity, and as a show of the state of smaller towns, as lower income families have to shop these stores for lower prices and a more accessible source of food.