To Keep From Going Under

While studying abroad at SCAD’s Lacoste, France campus in 2009, I was thinking about how the mind has incredible control over the body, how we are connected to everything around us, and how we are connected to each other. Shared experiences and living in a foreign country together allowed connections to happen quite naturally with my peers and the environment. I used the limited materials I brought or found at hand like tea and natural earth pigments mined from the region, embroidery, tea bags, and raw silk organza I sourced from the area, to explore my relationships and connections with myself, others, and place. I was particularly inspired by the graffiti on the quarry wall in Lacoste. It had repeating bowl forms, or vessels, which I immediately connected to the body.

I was thrilled and touched that all of my peers in Lacoste were intimately involved in my process and the work I created there. Every day, I collected or a friend offered to collect the used tea bags from everyone at breakfast or lunch in the cafe. Some days, I found little gifts of used tea bags on the stairs leading up to my apartment. I opened them up and quilted the paper with raw silk I found at a local store, then created three dimensional vessels from the quilted fabric.

My gallery space had a beautiful irregular stone wall and I knew I wanted the three dimensional vessels to interact with the space. My installation, To Keep From Going Under, was site-specific and the vessels hung or sat on the stone wall with silk string connecting them together. Throughout the creation of this installation, I connected with my peers, the work representing both the individual and the collective through metaphorical meaning in process, materials, and the final installation.

I find satisfaction in discovering connections, finding beauty in uncommon places, and being aware of aesthetic experiences all around me. Visual art is the way I am able to translate these discoveries. Most cultures value art because it provides examples of how we fit in the world, which as humans we are continually trying to discover throughout our lives.