Today I discussed my installed instillation piece with the thesis group. I put up this instillation two days ago on Monday and was able to see it hung for the first time. Nearing the end of its completion, my mind suddenly opened up onto itself and a flood of new thoughts, ideas and visions entered into my mind. I think perhaps, my mental concentration on this piece was empowered by strong emotions of grief that had momentarily consumed me in a way I had never experienced with my artwork before. As my mind processed potent emotions of love, pain and loss, time seemed to lessen their grip and healing mirrored the beauty I found more and more in both the piece and the process of creating. Themes of community and connectivity seemed to stitch together an emotional tear within me that, until now, had blocked my way from moving on. This project has somehow enabled me to confront emotional demons and process the loss of loved ones...

...I have felt lighter and more open within the past two weeks physically and artistically, and I think this instillation piece has played a vital role in this change. I received wonderful critiques and thoughts from my peers and professors which brought my attention to a theme within my work that I realized had always been there but I had overlooked and forgotten: isolation...isolation within ourselves an from each other...Critiques suggested I expand the instillation into something more complex, creating more "figures" and adding stitching between entities rather than just within individual pieces of "skin," and also exploring different heights and levels. As of now, the strands are equally spaced out in a line, much more mathematical and cold than I want it to be. Community is a concept behind my exploration of human connectivity...tonight's critique was eye-opening not only in terms of the piece's formal qualities, but also in reminding me of the importance of talking about and showing my work to others, both parts of the artistic process as important as the creation
...the revealing and unveiling to others seems to somehow make it all more real.