Towards Berlin

Mono no aware (物の哀れ),[a] lit. 'the pathos of things', and also translated as 'an empathy toward things', or 'a sensitivity to ephemera', is a Japanese idiom for the awareness of impermanence (無常, mujō), or transience of things, and both a transient gentle sadness (or wistfulness) at their passing as well as a longer, deeper gentle sadness about this state being the reality of life.[2]

I have aspired to live and work in Berlin- specifically to respond to my own deeply personal issues of familial brokenness and repair. My specific multidisciplinary art methodology of mosaic is a means to address dis/connections, dis/associations, and proximity through fragments of broken memory - captured through drawn and inscribed tesserae. My deconstructed images and language both reimagine and pulverize the past to create a new space for repair- enabling acceptance and growth. My practiced based research makes literal and physical connections to contemporary art practices, such as collage and assemblage - processes which may use deconstruction and problem solving to address subjects such as climate change, immigration, inequality, and posttraumatic memory.

I will be participating in the Artists in Residence Program at SomoS Berlin, where I will creating new work and presenting it in a solo exhibition, opening March 26, Kottbusser Damm 95 Berlin Germany. I am completely gobsmacked that also my family and friends are traveling from around the world to join me here in Berlin for the show. The exhibition will travel to ARC Gallery, Chicago, for a September 2024 opening.

I am also leading my workshop, Embracing the Broken, in collaboration with SomoS Arts Berlin and DOMO, the German Organization for Mosaic Artists, February 24-25. For those interested in the workshop at The Chicago Mosaic School, please check the schedule for the all the amazing opportunities there.