Inquiry Statement

The first piece I created emulated controlled chaos. Then I realized that one of the great pestilences of the human condition is our propensity for creating waste. So, I started this process by scavenging ceramic from places where it had been resigned to languish. These objects were baptized in destruction and from their ruin I gave them new life. During the shared chaos of the late fall and bleak winter I became increasingly pessimistic. My focus shifted from the great waste of physical objects to ones of a metaphysical nature: time and happiness. This was the overture to many of my pieces but I now look back and instead of despair I see hope. The deer skulls were the perfect way to blatantly display both despair and both real and imagined waste. They showed the cages of our minds; 11 and how careless humans can be with life; 9. Towards the end of my investigation I received a concussion. I now had to heal from an injury invisible to the world. My final two pieces explored the process in which I slowly healed my damaged brain. My inquiry began with pessimism and ended with triumph. I learned that to win internal battles one must fight despair with hope.