For years I documented the outside noise.

The division.
The headlines.
The outrage.
The constant cycle of reaction.

Week after week, I cut apart newspapers and rebuilt them into visual records of what was happening in America and the world. At first, I believed I was only documenting the culture around me.

Over time, I realized something else was happening.

The work slowly became more than a record of external events.

It became a mirror.

It forced me to look more honestly at my own reactions, fears and conditioning.

Moments of collective upheaval have a way of exposing what individuals and societies have not yet healed.

That realization changed the direction of both my life and this project.

Alongside the work itself, I began reading and practicing the daily lessons in A Course in Miracles, a spiritual text centered on inner awareness, perception, responsibility and forgiveness. It helped reshape how I saw myself, the world, and the stories and patterns I attached to both.

The practice is not about reaching spiritual perfection or avoiding reality. It is about awareness, peace of mind, and learning to pause long enough to ask different questions.

Questions like:
How do we move forward from where we are now? What happens when we stop feeding the cycles that keep us angry, afraid and divided? What becomes possible when we begin to see ourselves, and each other, more clearly?

The mission of this project is to create space for deeper awareness, reflection, and more conscious human connection in a time increasingly shaped by fear, reaction, and division. From Ego to Essence is not only about documenting a decade; it is about understanding what this decade continues to reveal within us, and who we choose to become because of it.