One-Way Puppy Love

As soon as this photomontage project was decided on, the song slammed into my head and wouldn’t go away until I decided to use it.

I’ve always had an affinity for my collection of stuffed animals. Once an enormous mass of stuffing and fabric, my collection has been whittled down in the last decade or so to just those that have significant emotional resonance with me. I tend to bestow emotional capability onto all of my inanimate possessions. It’s easiest with my stuffed animals, but it happens with all of my things: clothing, office supplies, boxes, etc. This leads to the unfortunate reality where I have a hard time replacing old clothes; rather than feeling nostalgic for a particular shirt, I instead feel as if the shirt is mad or disappointed and I get a minor guilty twinge every time I choose donation as the fate for a piece of clothing.

Luckily, that emotional connection made this project incredibly easy for me. The poses came naturally, the story wrote itself, and the feelings of longing and friendship are as real here as they would be with humans or other animals.