Vessels is a series of work I started to describe my own brief time in sex work as a minor being groomed into the industry. Growing up Mormon, I did not realize how often high control, patriarchal religions blur the lines for young girls of who gets to control their bodies, who gets to scrutinize their bodies, who gets to profit off of their bodies - priming girls and women for sexual and domestic abuse.

During that time, I met a lot of women I still idolize for their strength, beauty, generosity, and their humor. Life has brought me back, again and again, to women experiencing all aspects of sex work. I have had the privilege of knowing artists and athletes that work as strippers, Only Fans girls and sex film actors under varying states of freedom, sexual independence, economic duress, and flat-out exploitation. I have also been in the presence of the indominable spirits of trafficked girls seeking justice for themselves and against an entire system of abuse and slavery. While the sex industry and trafficking are distinctive and separate industries to the performer, the consumer is often deliberately shielded (or shield themselves) from understanding the differences between labor, exploitation, and slavery when it comes to very young women.

As I moved into adulthood, I have noticed that there is often a secret society of women who have spent time in this world, who cannot speak openly about what they saw there, for fear of losing relationships, jobs, or even their safety. I have had grandmothers hug me and whisper that they danced too - but never told a soul in their adult life.

This work is my tribute to them.