Almost There
Charcoal, clay, rope, burlap, linen, wood, bark on raft
49″ x 36″ x 60″
$7,500
2020
My multi-year Sanctuary project began as a visceral response to refugees seeking shelter around the world. Suddenly, while developing the installation, the pandemic made refugees of us all, in a way, as we felt uprooted from the lives we knew, and Sanctuary grew in metaphorical significance.
Sanctuary is an immersive environment. I initially created life-size mixed-media drawings of figures walking to what they believed would be safety. When I saw reports of broken rafts trying to navigate the Mediterranean Sea, I crafted symbolic three-dimensional rafts that escape from a dark mural across a gallery floor. Still, I want to inspire hope. In 2021 I drew and sculpted families settled in tents and I hint at the possibility of life resuming.
The six pieces in “The Next Big Thing” are elements of all three parts of Sanctuary. “Madonna and Child,” “Woman with a Phone” and “I Want to Go Home” are each wall-hung panels from Part One. In these, charcoal drawings on raw linen combine with branded coffee bean bags and found objects to make each character unique, while inviting visitors to walk along with them. “Prayer for Safe Passage” and “Almost There” are free-standing rafts where hands of clay, tree bark, rope, and twine extend from portraits drawn on linen “sails.” Finally, “Mama Holds Up the World” shows a woman lifting a burlap roof of her tent in a sculpture from Part Three that culminates the journey.
My multi-racial background informs this subject with historical perspective. My immigrant grandparents barely spoke English. In Sanctuary, I also reflect on the Great Migration after the Civil War, the Holocaust, and echoes of those that drowned in the middle passage. All sides of my family persevered like the figures I depict.
I want viewers to experience my work with an intimate sense of individual lives. I aim to turn the conversation away from statistics to human empathy and create art that can move a wide audience.
