“Held” - This 34x46 inch piece was created using heat treated steel for the background, hand-embossed copper, patinated with liver of sulphur, for the sculptural mandala, and a human body print using charcoal (sitting cross-legged and holding the mandala). This art was born out of a personal mediation while grieving. My mind was cluttered, and as I gently quieted each voice in my head, I was left holding a very palpable plasma-like ball of emotion in my lap. It was more complex than sadness. It was gently swirling in my arms and it seemed to contain all the grief and all the love I’d ever known at the same time. It felt like an honor to hold it and I felt confident in my ability to hold it and care for it.

I knew initially that I wanted to wrap a human body print around a representation of this emotional swirling sphere. I began to explore mandalas, and quickly realized that, as they represent the world, I could use one to symbolize what I had experienced holding. As often happens in the creative process, I followed my impulse to include some literal imagery inside the mandala, creating a dynamic symmetry in the piece (a body holding a world in which a body is holding a worldly experience). Once I created the body print in black charcoal around the mandala, I recognized an additional layer to this symbolism. The body print felt skeletal, ancestral. I related to the feeling that my ancestors were holding me and supporting me though this human experience of grief.

This piece is available in my etsy shop.