The Alligator Who Couldn’t Find a Friend

2025

Sculptural paper box with hand embroidered paper. 6x6x4 inches.

The Alligator Who Couldn’t Find a Friend began as a bedtime story I made up for my younger sister when we were both supposed to be settling down and going to sleep, around ages 5 and 3. I created this piece for a show about folklore and realized that this story had become a kind of family folklore — a small piece of oral history that survived simply because it was told, remembered, and shared. Even 45 years later, we both still remember it.

Inside the drawer of the box is a tiny book containing the original text of the story:

Once upon a time there was an alligator who couldn’t find a friend. He looked to his left. No friend. He looked to his right. No friend. Then he looked down in his lap and there was a friend. And they lived happily ever after. The end.