desiderata

I started this series initially as a commission. A dear friend was going through a divorce, and I wanted to create something for her, her new home, her new life, her new outlook. As I often incorporate text in my work, I asked her to suggest some writings that spoke to her in a meaningful way. The Desiderata by Max Ehrmann was one of those texts. It immediately resonated with me; I recalled a copy pinned to our refrigerator in my childhood. My mother, an artist, found solace from these words.  I soon learned that my grandmother, also an artist, cherished this same text.  With my familial ties in place, I had my starting point.

As I read and wrote, and re-read and re-wrote, the phrase “you are a child of the universe…you have a right to be here”  kept surfacing. It spoke to me, as someone who often feels to be an outsider. So many signals from our society are about who does or does not belong, who should be protected or excluded, who should receive the spoils of war, and who must bear its burden.

In creating these pieces, I tried to imagine the universe in me, in us all. Can something on the wall touch the vastness that is our cosmos? Can it remind us to think past our own small part, and look beyond? Can we become quiet enough to hear one another, to hear the universe?