Cry and Cry and Cry Because It Hurts! is a six-minute video loop projected onto a window pane. Reflected in the glowing glass are clips from the 1990s to early 2000s children's shows and nostalgic ads flickering noisily. Characters and scenes from Barney, Mister Rogers, Thomas the Tank Engine, and The Big Comfy Couch deliver snippets of advice on accepting and understanding feelings of hurt, sadness, anger, and loneliness. Interspersed between the nostalgic childhood clips, late-night QVC pitches, ‘Got Milk?’ campaign commercials, and payday lending services, advertisements sell all of the fixes to America’s adulthood issues.

Through slippages and relational play between language and imagery, this work offers a reflection on the systemic and often predictable interconnectedness of Midwestern class, turbulent childhood upbringings, and the enduring impact of pain, addiction, and illness in adulthood.