This is no easy pursuit
Hunting for what is still not there
Each time rebuilding
On barren land
Ground up
At times
Confident and sturdy
At times
Frail and discouraged
Repeated motions
The pieces keep tumbling apart
Working my way through a hopeful language
“I’ll know better next time”
Working sculpturally was one of the surprises Art Therapy offered me
In my previous work as a graphic artist my work tended to mostly be 2-dimensional with interactive elements with the viewer. But in the therapeutic context, I always needed more depth. More complexity. More spatial texture. More inside pulling out, outside dropping in.
Sculpture was a language I needed to explore my experience.
This piece was exploring my physical and mental experience of saying ‘No’ in the context of an unhealthy relationship. I had no direction starting out. I went through piles of photographs and texts ripped out from old books. Texts on ‘Hunting’ and images of trees and land stood out for me.
From there I began building and layering. A physical building up for the sake of mentally and emotionally breaking things down.
The sculpture collapsed many times during the process. It spoke to my actual experience of resistance. It was fragile, unsure and unfamiliar.
The falling apart matters just as importantly as the putting together, you see..