"Calm down, my heart. Don't beat so fast. Don't be afraid just once in a lifetime." -Wolfsheim
"Outside(s)" Graphite Pencil on Paper 30" x 40"
The Great Wall, the Berlin Wall, Brandenburg, Gaza, Segregation, Gentrification. Ultimately Isolation. It is in our DNA to put up boundaries to keep the "other" out. The greatest barriers we fail to understand we build around our own hearts.
For the longest in my life I have felt an outsider, looking through a glass bowl not able to pass the invisible barrier, unable to join the party. I must admit to using the proverbial chip on my shoulder as an identity, fully unaware it only serving as a means to become isolated. My view of the world was always through a filter, an obstacle.
I have always sought a world to belong to, some place to call my own. I wanted Williamsburg to be exactly that. It finally became clear in the process of this drawing that I have done it again. I put up yet another barrier. I began to realize that if I wanted this to change the transformation had to start with me. It was time to shed my skin. It was time to join the human race.
I shared this work and my thoughts with a dear friend. She reacted to the fence and brought up childhood memories of feeling the chainlink in her hands and biting into her Converse clad feet. It's what we did as kids. You jumped the fence and ran to the what was on the other side.