Valkyrie Acid Shock Tart

12x12 Acrylic/ Canvas/ Glitter/ Glass Frame 

Years ago I was going to see the movie Valkyrie on a Saturday afternoon with my then-boyfriend. He had been on a call all of the way to the theater. I was pretty hungry, found a pack of shock tarts and ate most of them. Once we got into the movie theater I started to feel really sick. I couldn’t breathe, and the movie Valkyrie was this Tom Cruise movie where there was some kind of weird fake eyeball. I whispered to my boyfriend “I really don’t feel well, I think we need to go.” He asked, “Have you eaten anything?” “I said only some candy in your car.” He turned to me and said, “The candy that was in a paper bag and had duct tape on it?” I thought.. Come to think of it, yes. 

Incidentally, I had eaten about 9 hits of acid by mistake. When I walked out of that dark theater and into the electric glittering red, gold and blue lights of the lobby I was immediately convinced I was in a pinball machine. For the rest of my life, I will never look at a movie theater lobby the same. It’s the dumbest memories that make the silliest stories for later on. I lived through the acid trip and the year 2008, though both were a close call.  Two years later I will get clean - and anything I considered fun or glittering about those times will drastically fade and morph into a different reality. At the time I really thought my life was over but - my life hadn’t even started yet. Walking out of some weird movie into an even weirder one that was actually reality - how fitting.