Project M.O.U.S.E.

This holiday season I partnered with the Darien, CT library to create decorations for a Christmas tree inspired by Simon Van Booy's novel Sipsworth, about the unlikely friendship between a lonely widow and a tiny mouse.

I love libraries. I always have. They're one of the few remaining spaces where strangers share something quietly together without a direct exchange of money. Knowledge, stories, refuge. A peaceful place to be. When the opportunity came to make something for the Darien library's Lit Tree Lane event, I wanted it to involve labor and hands and time.

If you know my work, you know I'm drawn to the obsessive accumulation and use of small things. Wallpaper made from thousands of individually placed stickers. A wall piece composed of hundreds of Barbie shoes arranged to reference early American quilt patterns. Handling and creating each tiny object one by one feels like a meditation on material history and human touch. Human connection, history, and labor are all very important to my practice.

For the Sipsworth tree, I hand-sculpted dozens of one-inch clay mice, each with a ribbon hanger, and placed them on my tree at the library. Next to it: a rather formal-looking red mailbox where patrons could submit adoption applications for the mice. Even the smallest creatures deserve a proper vetting process.

Once each application was approved, each mouse was carefully removed from the tree and placed in a small jewelry box lined with soft cotton. The mouse's new name was written on the lid. Inside, the adopter's name and my signature. The original application got stamped "APPROVED / PROJECT M.O.U.S.E." on the back and tucked in alongside a formal adoption letter welcoming them to their new home.

The letters read, in part: "Your mouse has been waiting patiently on the Sipsworth Tree... They are quiet, loyal, and require only the occasional crumb and a warm place to call home. We know you will take good care of them. We wish you both many years of gentle friendship."

Watching people fill out applications with such earnestness, choosing names, making incredibly kind promises to their mice, chatting with each other about the project, was exactly what I hoped would happen. It reminded me why I make things at all. The tenderness, joy, and wonder activated in people who experience something a little bit different, something that asks them to participate. It's so important that strangers keep talking to each other, and equally as important for people to feel some of the questions that arise when participating in any kind of art project. Questions like: Will I be approved? What exactly would I promise a tiny creature? Why on earth did someone spend hours making these tiny mice? Is it weird that I'm talking to a stranger? I feel connection to something bigger than myself, in some way; why don't I feel this more often?

PS: Project M.O.U.S.E. stands for Miniature Orphans Urgently Seeking Everyone. The applications shown here are not the complete collection of applications!