Highlights [To Exist Within]

Hardy & Nance Studios

2019

    I was granted the opportunity to be the sole exhibiting artist within the gallery space of Hardy and Nance Studios’ 2019 Art Crawl. It was the first time in their history that they would be offering the space for a solo exhibition during the event. I had often daydreamed about creating something in the space while attending exhibitions and open studio events.

    Having been awarded a six-month residency, receiving multiple opportunities to exhibit work and arriving at a year of being self-employed; the moment in time felt as one I needed to be still within before it passed. I felt a need to create something that would correlate previous works and speak to my journey up to that moment.

    The first mural I ever painted was created on a wall in an alternative exhibition space called Last Ward Gallery. It was during that time that I was introduced to yarn as a medium. My first large sculpture, Apology, was created during this time which was a period of homelessness and destitution. However, it was also a moment filled with freedom of expression and creative exploration.

    Highlights, a sculpture created in conjunction with the 2018 exhibition Dimensions which was held at Harrisburg Arts Museum, was an acknowledgment of the growth made since my introduction to yarn as a medium and a projection of the highlights I would create from that moment forth.

    Highlights [To Exist Within] is the figurative representation of those projected highlights made manifest within Hardy and Nance Studios exhibition space. The created environment transported the audience into a neon forest of tree-like sculptures. The sculptures invited the audience to participate in moments of pause and reflection, by creating space for passage through the sculpture's trunk-like structures.