The Co-Dependents

THE CO-DEPENDENTS
2026
Hand-embroidered textile work from Bird Couples Therapy series
14 x 11 x 1"

Original art, one-of-one. Created using a raw-edge technique. Hand embroidered in cotton thread using vintage and found fibers.

This piece will be mailed stretched on bars and gallery wrapped.

Now for the meet-cute couple backstory.

Love has a way of blurring the line between closeness and dependence.

In The Co-Dependents, two cardinals become a lens through which to explore the complicated dynamics of intimacy, attachment, and the desire to be needed. Where does devotion end and dependence begin? How much of ourselves do we surrender in the pursuit of connection, and when does holding on become a way of losing ourselves?

Part of my Bird Couples Therapy series, this embroidered work uses the familiar language of romantic relationships to examine the tenderness, contradictions, and quiet absurdities of being human. Beneath its playful premise lies a more complicated question, asking how do we love another without losing ourselves in the process?

In their case, she doesn't know how to build or repair a nest using her bare wings because he always does it. He can't cook the worms without burning them, showcasing a perfectly dysfunctional arrangement held together by mutual dependence and questionable life skills.

Through tactile language of thread and fabric, The Co-Dependents invites viewers to recognize something of their own relationships in the lives of these feathered counterparts, whether it's through a familiar pattern, un uncomfortable truth, or perhaps a little of both.