As the hand-built concrete form began taking shape in early May, it emerged as "the watcher", a silent witness of an unnerving world unfolding globally. Concrete as a media embodies the quality of presence, something congealed of fluid earth. It speaks, "I am here, I am certain".
I found this interesting, as my daily emotional and social experience of culture began to feel increasingly disorienting and fragmented. The tension between the solid repose of the concrete sculpture and my awareness of a familiar reality crumbling, gave rise to the surface treatment of the form - tessarae of household ceramic and glass, broken stuff that represented an unconscious ownership of my privilege, my pride, my comfort, my security.
The tone of this sculpture remained largely contemplative and perfunctory once surfaced in mosaic, producing a more internal than external observation. While meanings contracted, and eyes, ears, and explanations proved less reliable data, the concrete and mosaic sculpture completed in the realm of heroic - a willing and humble witness to survival.
Most significantly, my tendency to over-think meaning is becoming displaced with a deeper awe and humility for the causal forces of nature that override whatever control I may imagine to have. As an artist, I feel a new kinship to our collective human experience. Justification falls away. I do what I do, and seek to honor the imprint of life as it arises in me. My voice is the most unique, yet grounded in the most universal.
How did coronavirus catalyze this shift in my art practice? Isolation is a great equalizer. Collective trauma is a shared experience. The context of this moment is a relative of thousands of years of human development. Silence is a field full of unconscious potential. Suffering is everywhere. Beauty is real. Life doesn't need me, it wants me. Materials have no intrinsic value or permanence. These are a few thoughts that come to mind out of my inner resonance.
I think there's been an invisible asset that has emerged for me, as an artist, from silencing the arrogance of my cultural blueprint. My body, my senses, my emotional and mental capacities - these are abundant landscapes that blend seamlessly with that of 'other' and earth, not isolated perceptions. My work in this moment of world crises opens life through me. I can hold more of the complexity in my art.