This body of work, Dilecto Meo, grapples with a contradiction intrinsic to both romantic and divine love. The Latin words of its title translate into English as My Beloved. These words are offered as an abbreviation of the phrase from the Bible’s Song of Solomon: Ego dilecto meo et dilectus meus / I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine. Often engraved on wedding rings to signify the promise of a life-long partnership, in its original context it refers to that aspect of divine union where self dissolves into other.

          My readings for this work include texts by and about religious mystics as well as philosophical colloquies on the intersections of divine and romantic love. I have been especially drawn to writings by women, academic and devout, in consideration of these subjects. ​​In response to these studies, I composed and then stitched my own poetic cogitation onto a length of white silk with vanishing thread. Wearing this shawl, I stopped beside a quiet river bank. In consideration of the river’s lustrating motion, I removed and submerged the shawl at its edge. As the cloth became saturated, so the threads were washed away. Juxtaposed photographs of the original and the degraded shawl, along with a video of the performative activity and the extant shawl itself are presented as the project’s visual production.