Life Inside the Center I & II

2021

I wanted to reflect on my relationship to relationships, beginning with others and leading to myself. Going through keepsakes held onto for many years, I made peace with the past as I often do— through art. Making these companion pieces caused me to release so many unwanted and expired feelings. I felt protective of the materials long enough to find their final resting place in my work. There is a long held ancient Egyptian romantic myth about the weighing of the heart against the feather of Ma’at upon death. The theory asserts the belief that the heart contained the deeds of one’s life, and if it outweighed the feather when put onto the scales, it would be devoured and sent to reincarnate to correct the errors of its evolutionary process. Relationship to other has the feather, while relationship to myself has the heart.

Emu eggs, drilled to fit porcupine quills, each egg filled with notes of making peace with seven deadly sins and heavenly virtues. Shredded, pulped, and repurposed love letters from old flames over thirty years made into nests. Each nest is lined with tarantula molts, ground opossum bones, butterfly wings, and hummingbird feathers. Retired diary and keepsake box keys, stag beetles with wings lined with lovers eyes and my own from old photographs, honey locust thorns, “golden apples” taken from Paradise Lost piece, custom made cases.