Category: YAYA BOX PROJECT HISTORY

YAYA BOX HISTORY CHAPTER 1 I. The Spark In 1991, I graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. That fall, I began my Master of Arts program as a graduate assistant. I was creating a great deal of hands‑on artwork, always aware that I had yet to choose a thesis project. What follows is…

YAYA BOX HISTORY CHAPTER 2 II. The Gathering  A week after I explained the project to my Art History professor, she said the box process was the last thing on her mind at night and the first thing on her mind in the morning.   I was thrilled by the enthusiasm of the women involved. G was…

YAYA BOX HISTORY CHAPTER 3 III. The Friction Five of us met at Fazoli’s on a Sunday afternoon — M, J, Y, S, and me. N and G couldn’t attend. We ate lunch and talked. Y repeatedly steered the conversation back to the process: “So, about the box…” She asked pointed questions about logistics and responsibilities. J continued to voice negative comments about her box and…

YAYA BOX HISTORY CHAPTER 4 IV. The Descent J went to Florida for two weeks of rest. During that time, I became increasingly aware — both intuitively and through conversations with the other women — that most of us were undergoing major internal shifts as we examined our lives so closely. I began to think I…

YAYA BOX HISTORY CHAPTER 5 V. The Shift Toward Process M and her daughter had moved back to Indiana from California in June 1992. M was the first person I thought of for the process — our friendship, dating back to 1983, had always been rooted in introspection and self‑discovery. But in April 1993, she returned to California.…

YAYA BOX HISTORY CHAPTER 7 VI. The Letter When the women had selected their boxes, I sent them a letter to help them with their process. I have included it here. Dear YaYa Box Women: My artwork has been concerned all along with the fragmented, survival quality of women’s lives. I am concerned with revising…

YAYA BOX HISTORY CHAPTER 7 VII. The Unfinished Passage As the project continued to unfold, life shifted in ways I hadn’t anticipated. Before I could bring the YaYa Box Project to completion, I moved out of state. The move interrupted the momentum of the work, and the thesis exhibition I had envisioned never materialized. Without…

YAYA BOX HISTORY CHAPTER 8 VIII. The Legacy of the Unfinished Although the YaYa Box Project never reached its intended exhibition, its impact did not diminish. In many ways, the absence of a final, public “product” revealed the deeper truth of the work: that the heart of the project was never meant to be the…

YAYA BOX HISTORY CHAPTER 9 IX. The Continuing Thread The YaYa Box Process did not end where I once imagined it would, yet its influence has continued to move through my life in quiet, steady ways. What began as a thesis project became something larger — a lived experience, a shared reckoning, a collective turning…