What if I'm not ready to be mended? How do I know where to start? These questions frame "The Mending", asking the viewer to think about what it means to mend a life, a situation, a family, and the difficulties that come with that process. Using handmade paper clay crafted from the writings of my own family members, who were given prompts of brokenness and healing, and gave their words to me in sealed envelopes to be shredded, I think about the tensions of healing. You cannot begin to mend unless you first lay it all out, all the broken fragments, and you let the fractures be seen. Then you can let go together and pull something new from what remains.