May 22, 2018

Illuminating Family, Reframing Teen Parenthood. Opening Reception. May 17, 2018

The opening was amazing! Thank you everyone who came to the show! And thank you so much to everyone who helped me pull this tremendous body of work together! To all of my teen families. To my own family, my boys, my sisters, all of my parents. Thank you Aaron, for being my biggest fan. To Lenore, my brilliant curator. To Catherine, my fabulous editor. To my best friend, Meghan, for being there for me, holding the things I can't, yet, and for coming in for the opening. To Marisa, for flying up for the show. To Cousin David, for helping me frame everything and for always being generous and teaching me how to have compassion for myself. To Adam, for helping me find the courage to be my authentic self. To Sandy for supporting me through this whole process. To the Paragon Gallery for choosing to show this body of work. To Kurtis and Lane who hung the show. To Dominic who has been a huge support. To Pushdot, for the gorgeous prints. To Mary, for always supporting this project, always! To Peggy for the fantastic graphic design. To Christa, for teaching me all that I know about Yoga. Thank you to all of my friends for the support, love and encouragement. It really does take a village, I could not have done this without my village. Thank you! (If I forgot to thank you, please know you are not forgotten - just yell at me and I will add you to the list!)

I am still taking it all in. The opening was better than I dreamed it would be. So many of the participants came, it was incredible to see them in the space, with their photos, with all of the other teen parents. A dream come true! The stories that everyone wrote brought people to tears, the stories touched everyone. I was in a state of complete overwhelm for the entire night, through the next days. I am slowly taking it all in. So much to process, so much to learn. I know there are layers I haven't even touched upon yet. 

I must remember that opening a show is an exhausting experience, so next time I will be prepared. I was completely wiped out. Today is the first day since that I feel almost completely myself. It is hard for me to wrap my mind around the fact that this show is the culmination of three years of work. And, it is so hard to not think, "What's next?". This gets to settle into my emotional, mental, psychological world, then, when the time is right, I will know what is next. 

Thank you, everyone! Love, Eden