The Swallowed Sun (2022-2023) explores the surreal, mystical, and haunted aspects of Laguna Beach, CA. The town, situated on the fringes of Orange County, has a storied past of Acjachemen (Juaneño) dislocation, artistic and countercultural activity, gay liberation, and spiritual seeking.

In the wake of colonial and gentrifying forces including the AIDS crisis (of which Laguna Beach had the highest rate of infection per capita in 1990), a local turn toward conservative politics, and an increase in the cost of living, the atmosphere and identity of Laguna Beach greatly changed. Underneath that postcard image of Southern California is a sun-blasted and uncanny world where the idiosyncratic, psychedelic, and sacred still reside.

The project's title takes reference from a recurring theme across mythologies (Hindu and Aztec for example) in which, during an solar eclipse, gods were thought to have consumed the sun for a period of time. In a place where access is increasingly exclusive and commodified, who and what gets excluded from it?

These images were primarily made during an Artist-in-Residence program at Art House San Clemente in 2022.