To friends and lovers alike.

A mixed media and digital collage reading “So many friends I wish I’d kissed” is hardly a subtle message. This pieces derives its message from the push and pull and deep yearning of loved ones having to leave throughout the early years of the pandemic. Friends became exceptionally close, all while they were often abruptly torn from the country in a wave of the global pandemic. Ironically, as political and geographic borders intensified, the borders between friends and lovers began to blur. “So Many Friends” is a nod to the “what if” of certain relationships of the past, while also serving as a reminder for the future. No more regret under the guise of a promised tomorrow; feelings - love - must be communicated in the present. The friends and/or lovers who receive this message will exist beyond time and space, instead positioned as love and survival during an unprecedented time.