My Website Link

www.morrain.wordpress.com

Nomadic Architecture Art Installation: Shadows of Reflections

      These are photographs from my "just add water" outdoor art installation which was installed next to Lake Tahoe as a project for my Nomadic Architecture class. It was created on the basis of fitting the supplies inside of a suitcase and then installing them in a site specific location. The project is meant to be nomadic, allowing the piece to easily travel and be created amongst numerous landscapes. This project became a sort of reflection of a nomadic lifestyle, having to be built and then taken down and then rebuilt, much like shelters for nomads. Although the aesthetics of the installation are in no way based on the concept of this lifestyle, the process is directly related.
        Living a nomadic lifestyle is heavily dependent on the ability to problem solve and be prepared for adversity and uncertainty by being able to change the way one sleeps, eats, and interacts  in different spaces based factors such as topography and weather patterns. When developing a nomadic art installation, one must acknowledge that the art must also function in preparation for adversity. In this way, my installation mirrors a reflection of humanity as an art form, able to stay consistent within change. The title, Shadows of Reflections, suggests the necessity for people to reflect on darker experiences which often arise from adversity. This reflection can reveal methods of problem solving in order to consistently arrive in a state of contentment, even when faced with change. Nomadic experiences can propagate a sense of acceptance for adversity and uncertainty by providing a basis of direct interaction with change. I plan on installing Shadows of Reflections in numerous locations and can only hope that this experience will provide the piece with the same interaction with change, thus allowing it to reflect on and develop from possible adversity. 

Finished Junior Art Portfolio Review Exhibition

Rotate to Initiate a State of Altered Vision

Artist Statement

        We live in a multi-faceted existence with both visible and non-visible components. Physical existence is often perceived without recognition of the underlying geometric patterns that make up all of creation. Becoming aware of the idea that everything we see is connected through a sacred geometric pattern is a catalyst for recognition of the importance of universal connectivity. The basic yet complex pattern of creation, known for centuries as the flower of life, provides a reflection of harmonic purpose within a seemingly complex existence. 

My work seeks to stencil out an awareness of the underlying aspects of all that we are in order to reveal what we cannot see. One of the most important components of existence is not directly tangible and is therefore overlooked. I choose to incorporate the flower of life into my work because it provides a basic understanding of the universe. Physical reality manifests itself through sacred geometry; existence is nothing but a cyclical pattern of intercepting points. 

Because the flower of life is seemingly intangible, I wanted to allow it to be the opposite by providing an interactive incorporation for the viewer. Using a mirror, I have provided an opportunity for them to be able to see their form clearly within the pattern that created it. By creating a rotating mechanism for this intricate pattern, I have provided an element that alters the vision of the viewer and provides an opportunity for them to see themselves becoming one with the pattern they are already one with. The reflection as well as the tangibility directly demonstrates that the flower of life is an important element to our physicality. 

I have also incorporated a painting as a component of this piece in order to be surrounded by the pattern, much like we are in everyday life. Having the painting and the mirror across from one another creates a space where the viewer can see themselves as part of the painting rather than just looking at it directly. I chose to use both sculpture and painterly elements in this piece in order to pull myself out of my usual work and find a way to incorporate the flower of life stencil into new mediums. This was a frustrating process that allowed me to find inner harmony by working through the frustration. Because I had to push past the difficulty of problem solving and enduring the tedious quality of stenciling more than four hundred circles, I put myself in a life cycle, having to look past the difficulty in order to remember my inner harmony and continue to recognize that if I allowed myself to feel my connection to my creation, it would be easier to achieve my intention.  

More On Junior Art Portfolio Project Process/Steps to Completion

Progress on first stencil:

 

Stencil "Experiments":

Progress on painting:

First time stretching canvas: 

Painting Experiments in Preparation:

Parts of Poems I've Written; A directly connected yet separate art form

I’m from a place that etches you as an artist. Three dimensional, two dimensional. I don’t give a fuck, just give me something to do art with. I don’t need to make a living, I am living.

What you have done to me is like spreading ashes without ceremony

Your tears should be hot as you slide into the dawn of eternity 

You should be lying on this earth but my flesh has gone cold from a raping of my sanity

Instead humanity holds me as a product of aesthetic vanity 

Scraping my skin into concoctions for cold hearted flesh

While mining the abscesses 

To collect my puss as something worn through a cycle of destruction 

You see the ground with sorrow in its eyes as I pulse for my last breath 

I am your mother 

Choking on my own blood

And pleading life from the children who are killing me

I refuse to suffer from the mistakes of others

If we are all one 

Then their mistake is my own 

But my liberation can also be theirs

Instead of standing tall in anger

I will lay low as a mountain woven to this earth

Even with this realization

I find myself wrapped in the waves of my own tears

And ask myself if eyes can drown

Surely the answer is no

For none of us have moved from our bodies 

In the celebration of death

Instead we move hot salt as liquid 

From the depth of our fleshen feathers 

We seek peace in the chaos of this motion

Peace as a cry of comfort 

In the arms of our swollen souls 

Water weaves into the shape of a mouth and delicately forms into a texture of the perfect commitment to swallow the thread, to let it flow from us and leave us strung to the blanket of existence. Purpose blooms between our toes and wraps across our calves to grab onto our thighs and grow across our torsos, necks, and heads. This purpose is fed by rivers flowing to outline the contours of our cells; crashing into oceans as our eyes and building an oasis in our mouths where our purpose blooms from its thirst, quenched by the basis of our forms. Without water we are dragged from our selves with empty hands to dry in the dirt caked between the crevices of our palms. As this reenactment of bone on bone, we thirst for our bodies and drink from the wells of our cells until they have gone dry. Dust caked between our eyes is a symbol of misdistribution to the famished. Be it from the hands of a self or the hands of an earth, we are the potential to wither. But we are also the potential to bloom.

Wind streaks through our vision as the epitome of common sense

It is not common tendency 

But now it shakes our bones until they crumble from the soles of our feet

We are walking on the wind

We are walking on the swollen fragments of our bones

We are falling from our own skins and tying our bodies as flaps

To block us from the winds of our senses

We blow as folding flesh

With our spirits proudly watching our bodies act as our own shelters 

It all started with a drop

And our sound flickered as silence across a buried path of repetition 

Repetition repetition repetition

Some Inspiration

Mr. Brainwash

Daniel Martin Diaz

Charles Gilchrist

 Anish Kapoor

 Ashley Foreman

 Unknown

 Unknown

Unknown

 Unknown

Junior Art Portfolio Preparation Process, Spring 2014

Notes, thought process, etc. 

• The moment
• Centering through process
• Suffering; at this point I'm not trying to draw attention to unnecessary suffering as much as trying to cope with my own through immersion into my art world. Unlike some artists, I’m not trying to create a world but rather enter another, which is the medium. 
• Inhabiting the art; being the medium and just being
• Connection; things appearing separate when they're actually connected
• True purpose and contentment
• Realities and perspectives
• Cycles and geometry and the basis of creation
• The point of existence
• The meaning of life is life itself