As a kid, the world felt like my playground and every object and idea up for interpretation. My identity was elusive and undefined and I felt free to be whomever.

Today, I find myself standing inside certain identities or titles and living informed by stories shaped by the past or present. I’m an artist, a product manager, a track & field athlete, a sister, someone who loves to cook, etc. As time marches on, the grip these identities have on me seems to oscillate and evolve. I make an effort to shed some, and others, I nurture or practice claiming.

Sometimes it feels like who I am or how I show up in the world is wrapped up in these stories or in the titles I’ve come to own.

Since college, I’ve missed the structure that classes, clubs, and communities learning together provide. Amidst this yearning, Stranger Bound was born.

To me, this project lives in protest to the boxes we might be living in. I want to create freely and interrogate who I wound up being. I want to learn with and from others and explore, together. I want to practice living my life without constraint.

This whole project is a labor of love and what becomes of it, how it grows and transforms, depends on you and me.

If you have any ideas, thoughts, feedback, or just want to connect, please reach out! Your inquiries and engagement will propel this forward and give it life.

Sending you much love, wherever you are!

<3

Mary