Through the Looking Glass
The contradiction and unpredictability of what happens to Alice has given me a voice in which to express myself. I have had the theme of Alice and her world in my art for several years now. I had been really sick for several semesters and that semester I was able to start working toward a treatment that completely changed my standard of living. With this change, I began working with brighter colors and more expressive, abstracted forms, and the first of my Alice works was created. Ever since, Alice has been a symbol of life experience for me. Her events were fantastic and interesting, but also scary and unpredictable. She’s an example of someone who doesn’t always know who she is or where she’s going; regardless of that, she speaks her mind and decides that, even if it really is just a dream, she will decide where she goes.
The abstract organic forms I have constructed work together to create an installation that symbolically ties back to Lewis Carroll’s stories about Alice. Abstract art is fascinating because of its ability to have individual and universal meaning simultaneously. I see a direct parallel between abstract art and Alice’s experiences, where the lessons and encounters had by Alice can be applied individually or universally. With this body of work, my goal was to create more of a feeling; specifically, the feelings I associate with these stories and messages I have gleaned from them. I feel that these ideas could be applied to anyone’s life. The work I create isn’t supposed to be perfect or traditionally beautiful, but instead to show the beauty in unpredictability and chaos that is a huge part of each of our lives.
Finding Ourselves in the Looking Glass 1
Finding Ourselves in the Looking Glass 2
Finding Ourselves in the Looking Glass 3
Finding Ourselves in the Looking Glass 4
Finding Ourselves in the Looking Glass
mixed media, paper & glass
These works are a creation to allow the viewer to ‘walk through the looking glass’ with me. In Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass, Alice wonders aloud, “How nice would it be if we could only get through into the looking-glass house! I’m sure it’s got, oh! Such beautiful things in it.” With this body of work I wanted to express messages I've found in reading these books and personal ideas and themes I've found in them. The purpose of this work is to express the messages I found while reading that can be universal and applied to anyone. I wanted them to see themselves in my work; these hanging leaves mosaiced with broken mirrors give a literal application to a symbolic hope I have. That hope is that no matter what you are going through, the messages I focus on and illustrated can have personal meaning individualized to anyone.
Bloom 1
Bloom 2
Bloom 3
Bloom 4
Bloom 5
Bloom 6
Bloom 7
Bloom
paper, acrylics
This piece references the multiple size changes Alice makes in her adventure. Those changes were all started by a decision she made. As her size fluctuates, she finds herself overwhelmed and uncomfortable. During her conversation with the Caterpillar he asks, “What size do you want to be?” Alice retorts, “I’m not particular as to the size, only one doesn’t like changing so often.” Sometimes, like Alice, we are apathetic as to what size we are. We care less about what we are becoming and just see the discomfort of the change as our biggest priority. Growth is a natural thing, but our decisions can affect the timeline of that growth.
Supposed to Be 1
Supposed to Be 2
Supposed to Be 3
Supposed to Be 4
Supposed to Be 5
Supposed to Be 6
Supposed to Be 7
Supposed to Be
plaster, ceramic, acrylics
In Alice in Wonderland, Alice comes across three gardeners painting a white rose bush with red. Alice asks, “Why are you painting those roses?” One of the gardeners replies, “This here ought to have been a red rose tree, and we put a white one in by mistake.” These gardeners were going to so much effort to try and make these flowers the way they were “supposed to be.” In life we do similar things with different ideas of “supposed to be.” We waste so much time focusing on what we imagine it should have been that we have very little energy to appreciate what is. Regardless of what society, our culture, or our own critical minds tell us about what we are supposed to be, we should appreciate the beauty of what we currently are.
Change
plaster, acrylic
This work relates to the Caterpillar that Alice encounters. In the book, the caterpillar asks Alice who she is. She replies, “I hardly know. I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then.” The irony of having this conversation with a creature who would naturally go through such drastic changes isn’t lost on us. This piece is symbolic of those changes. We don’t always have such drastic adventures where we get to experience such rapid change like Alice; however, I wanted to illustrate that we all will go through change and it will most likely be uncomfortable, like being stuffed into a small cocoon. Those changes and experiences aren't always a bad thing. Given the perspective from outside the chrysalis, we can recognize their beauty and necessity. That caterpillar who may not know who it can be might not appreciate its time in a tight, hard place; however, the butterfly can see the freedom it has as a result from their time in the cocoon and consider it a small sacrifice.
Growing or Falling
mixed media
Alice's adventure started with her following the rabbit and falling down the rabbit hole. She felt that she was falling slowly and for a very long time. I often think about who Alice would have been if she never fell down into Wonderland. If she had never fallen, she wouldn't have been able to meet new people and see a different world. Falling gave her the opportunity to grow in a way she never would have been able to by staying by the lake with her sister. Similarly, as we decide to go different directions and leave the comfortable places of life is when we grow the most, even if in the moment it feels like falling.