“Surfafim” or “Sea, Sky, and Song know all self-expression is self-love.”
Painted almost entirely in nail polish, the angel plays an instrument made of moon to show how that which we affect in turn affects us. I made this piece to call on vast feelings of serenity and oneness in hopes that I could cheer on any who want to sing the song in their heart. Be louder than the ocean and big enough to fill heaven.
This piece took me a lot of time and was actually meant for Pride this year. Better late than never though! The seashells used were collected by hand by me from Galveston island and painted individually using nail polish. I wanted to create something connecting my love of nature with mental health and community so there was no better option than to take broken seashells and lovingly paint them to highlight their individual beauties before binding them together. The poem on the back of the piece is also by me.
This piece is an allegory about date rape. I can tell you what happened here, that this ripped pillowcase is a veil obscuring a drawing of a warped face with abstract flowers growing through it. I can tell you that the knot of the wood is one of the eyes of the figure and makes it look somewhat alien. I don't remember the colors of the flowers anymore, or there exact shape, as the piece was completed in secret months ago. You can only choose to believe me and what I experienced or rip me open to find out what you think of my art for yourself. You can pry out the nails that attach the pillowcase I had used since then or even rip it along its tears. This piece is painful and strange. It seems simple and stupid to some and on the nose to others. It is frank and ugly and utterly unremarkable. This piece is an allegory.
Each piece in this series expresses a feeling of destruction and the creation that comes from it, failure and the frustrations that follow, acceptance and the inevitability of recovery through perseverance, and the painful growths that happen to change us. The path towards healing and recovery from anything, including neglect, will most often not be straightforward and clear. We are each weeds and vines, thorny and splintered, trying to make something of the earth we've scorched. The matches represent the failures to blossom as well as the only way to bloom at all. Each canvas had been engulfed in flames, carved into, cracked open, and painted over, repeatedly. The final part in the series was done on carved wood to exemplify how natural our overgrowth and many efforts are and hopefully show that even a tragic kind of beautiful is worthwhile and wonderous.
- acrylic, nail polish, acetone, oil, matches, and adhesive on canvas and wood.
