In order to persevere as an artist, one must be willing to face the inevitable heap of misunderstanding that society provides us. It’s not easy for everyone to understand the artist’s mind and purpose in the world. However, this is exactly what art, in itself, does. So long as time is taken to reflect upon an artist’s work, thoughts are created about the meaning and meaning is what all humans are looking for in some sense or another. Meaning can be easily associated with understanding, purpose, and realization. These concepts are the pursuit of any conscious being, whether it’s at the forefront of their life or not.

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As an artist, I am gifted with the ability to communicate in ways that extend beyond verbal language. As a sentient being, I am able to move and be moved by the various nuances of existence. As a conscious being, I am capable of diving into matters of reflection and understanding that awaken the soul.

 

My art is about awakening, and simultaneously it is about the challenge involved in doing so. Understanding very rarely comes without sacrifice. At the very least, we must devote time to new concepts and practices. We must find humility within our confidence as artists and choose to continuously grow and expand. The possibilities for artistic expansion are endless and we should not limit ourselves to only those which we believe we know best.

 

Through studying art I have become awakened to a larger community of repurposed materials and metaphorical exchanges; I find art in everything I encounter. This is a very whimsical and magical way to live, albeit quite exhausting. The ways in which you can render messages through objects is endless. My life is forever a pursuit of how much I can create and communicate through the natural and unnatural byproducts of Earth and its inhabitants.

 

Throughout my development as an artist, it has become appropriate for me to face, find, and create challenges. I challenge my mind with the depths I can reach in my conceptual impressions, I challenge the audience to reflect upon what is being said through the pieces’ various messages and their relationship to them, I challenge assignments by extending beyond what is expected of adequate execution, and I challenge my materials to express a message waiting to be translated through the lens of human perception. My body, serving as instrument to this visual narrative, is inevitably challenged as well.

 

It remains difficult to connect all of my art to a cohesive theme other than the aforementioned ideas, but I can further elaborate upon my most recent work as a unit separate from things I have done in the past. I have been through my fair share of suffering and pain; my work once reflected this journey. Consequently, I am now able extend compassion and empathy to those who still suffer and cannot access the same channels of expression on their own. I have often felt that I was born to make art. I believe that I was born to be a voice to the voiceless. I was born to challenge outdated understandings. I was put on Earth to provide a source of guidance for individuals to see a broader spectrum of life and feel connected to it in their own way. In this sense, my art isn’t about me any longer.

 

I cannot argue that I understand all the intricate complexities of our existence, but I have come to understand that art can awaken inherent knowledge within us all. By itself, my work is simply an object, or arrangement of objects, perhaps repurposed or beautified; it is only when it is shared and internalized by an audience that it becomes an art piece. It is only then that my work has lived out its purpose.

 

The universe is constantly speaking to all of us. Humans serve as a channel for it in many ways. Through my work I have served as a voice for various entities that may often go unheard. This list has included plastic, glass, trees, miscellaneous garbage, sea creatures, metal and light, amongst many others. If I have done my work well, this list will include the human soul. What is yours trying to tell you?