Night Vision
My piece, Sun is life, is a celebration of the infinite connections we experience in community everyday. After visiting two friends in Ojai, California who tend to land within the Los Padres National Forest, I was overcome with a new sense of gratitude for nature and my relationship to my friends. This piece was originally going to be a pair of earrings for one of my friends but turned into a massive love letter for all of those people who support me and make life beautiful. With this piece, I invite viewers to meditate on the many ways they support and are supported by their communities. I hope to spark more gratitude for the life-force energy that exists within and around us all, and I wish to inspire hope.
Sun is Life was shown in collaboration with Zoe Gac and Zoey Dalbert, a painter and the curator for our joint show titled Night Vision (both longtime friends), at Elastic Arts in Chicago, IL. Zoe paints colorful, intense, almost phantasmagoric scenes of late nights in Berlin clubs. Her colors inspired my choices for the bright crochet pattern that decorates the black canvas of my piece. We also chose to paint the walls of the gallery black to create a better environment for viewing our works. This collaboration fulfilled the intention behind this piece and brought our communities together with a large celebration on the night of the opening. Elastic Arts is enjoyed every week by patrons as a music venue, which further satisfied my original desire to highlight social connection.