OUR COLLECTIVE HEART
"Our Collective Heart," 2012
Pricing upon request
Two of the strongest emotions that we experience are love and fear— feelings that aren’t mutually exclusive, and in fact often have a tidal pull to one another. In parallel, I realized that many other emotions and personal qualities stem from love and fear: jealously, shyness, pain, lust, violence, rage, passion, vanity, hubris, compassion, etc. When combined with the motivations of love and fear, these expressions become relatable and easier to understand. When you see a partner yell at their lover, for example, it may come from a place of fear: fear of being alone or being rejected, yet at the same time originating from a place of protection, empathy and trust.
Being able to see the motivation and hidden meanings can help us fare better with our fellow members of society. It will help us to better understand ourselves, and better accept ourselves and others. At the time of the collection's creation, the debate over marriage equality reached the highest political platforms in our country; our collective fear and our collective love were being heavily debated and examined. By making these paintings and displaying them, I am sharing the message that believing that one’s love or fear is unique and different is a false and damaging misconception.