The Art Museum is My Church
If not the wilderness, the art museum is my church. There are spirits and energies captured in art that leave me feeling closer to something bigger than me, and when collected all in one place from so many different cultures and generations, there is nothing more spiritual. For my birthday, I decided to leave the woods and go be around people, not too close because I haven’t showered in weeks and feel quite feral and undersocialized, but just have them in the background so I wouldn’t feel completely alone on my birthday. I did get an onslaught of texts from close friends this morning, which felt extra special since I am no longer on social media - it’s nice to know I still exist to people without Instagram and Facebook reminding them.
But being in the art museum today, despite being alone, made me feel supported and surrounded by people who understand the parts of me that I often feel like hiding, others who see things differently, who stand on the outside looking in while presenting themselves from the inside out, who use more than just words to express their inner world, who use art to fill in the blanks…to fill in the void. Hearing some of the other artists’ words made me feel by living my radically solitary life, I am standing in a community - a timeless community that exists in a plane between death and life - like heaven where spirits never die and continue to touch the living - a community of other artists that choose loneliness over conformity and complicity, the ones who can’t help but express themselves deeply, the ones who refuse to live unauthentically no matter how awkward and unusual, the dreamers that would rather live in their imagination than asleep in society, the ones who can visualize the things they feel into something tangible…and then bring them to life.
God is in Mother Nature and Mother Nature is God; Art is in Mother Nature and Mother Nature is in Art; God is an artist and artists are gods - little gods running around creating things to pass on through the generations and connect our spirits to one another…making us all one…one whole timeless and infinite spirit.
This caption at Denver Art Museum meant a lot to me. I felt this “audacious intensity” during 2020-21 and it exploded through my bracelets. Huge changes were made in the designs and techniques. A growth spurt, if you will, while simultaneously unleashing on social media and making changes within myself. The bracelets provided a necessary outlet for me to release pent up energy from realizing the culture and identity that was stolen from me as a transracial adoptee and be able to turn it into a small object to send out to connect with others.
Denver Art Museum. Info on this artwork below.
