Background:
The First Aid Cabinet for Artists & Other Wounded Souls started with the basic need of providing first aid supplies to studio renters at the crucible. Though there are a number of wall mounted first aid stations located in the building, they are only in the shared access areas and studio renters cannot access them after hours.
American Capitalism exploits our creative contributions: May we be sustained. First Aid: giving away fancy dollars to help with depletion. Ted Purves claimed the art give away is a form of resistance—I hope so!
Heard that metta meditation can be healing; however, the few times I have tried it I have sank deeper into the pit of my own pain and suffering. As an artist, I experience flow–a merging of who I am and what I am doing –when making things. Creating the First Aid Cabinet For Artists & Other Wounded Souls brings me joy. The process becomes my practice–awareness of each detail, the weight of each option and decision– holding the dialectics of concept and aesthetics; production and editing; self and other, the process serves as my own metta meditation for healing. Envisioning my work touching others helps me feel connected.
Healing in the making. Making the cabinet, making the doors, cutting and painting the glass serves as my focused practice.
Measuring, making shelves and boxes assuring everything has its own perfect place.
logos and labels for treatments…
Collected the Jokes for heart broken artists from folks at the crucible. I like the idea that people contributed to an other’s healing (without even knowing where it would end up!)
For Distress:
Fuzzy blankets for the distressed. Comfort filling the whole hole (well, actually just a mini-box prototype for the filling the whole/hole inside sculpture–that I plan to make whence I know what it feels like to not be broken. . . )
For more INFO about my: Healing with the Crucible