Out of the Drawers: Everything I Love, I Have Taken

Everything I love,

   I have taken-

plucked flowers from the rose bush 

in my childhood garden 

pulled plants out by their roots,

  from soils that mothered them 

my own pup from her mother 

and brothers

and into my home

where she too 

 Lives apart 

As a child I was pulled into the ocean

By refusing to stay where

I could stand-

But she 

Welcomed me, 

she, 

with salty kisses,  

rocked me gently 

In the  folds of her dress 

but I    fought against her

drew myself back

  onto this land that I have stained

  When I see her now,

she no longer remembers me 

and I am left somewhere between 

The End,

And a beginning 


Everything I love, I have taken seeks to explore the experience of being young and feeling like the world is ending—of wanting to prepare and make plans for a future, but feeling uncertain of the viability of this future. This exhibition also strives to acknowledge our individual role in an ongoing legacy of destruction, and inquire what agency and responsibilities we have to change present systems of power. 


Curated by Ilsa Jones. Selected photographs by Lauren Johnson, Lisa Bauso, Robert Gervais, Yuyang Zhang, Sandee Mcgee, Tyler Green, Jessica Hays, Jerry Slough, C. Meier, Beth Kerschen, Jessica Daugherty, Zach Bent 

In order to provide more visibility for artists participating in our 2021 Pacific Northwest Drawers exhibition, we have turned our Library wall into a Drawers exhibition space. Exhibitions typically rotate every other month and feature prints by multiple artists at a time.