home show • September 2019
home
NOUN
a place where something flourishes, is most typically found, or from which it originates.
ADJECTIVE
relating to the place where one lives.
In Life, I draw inspiration from the natural world- sunrises and sunsets, the soil, plants, trees, rivers, rocks, the ocean, the sky, animals, the elements... and from connection with other humans. The health and well being of both the environment and of others of my species have been two of my greatest sources of passion since I can remember. As an artist, honoring both the beautiful harmonies as well as the heartbreaking conflicts between “man” and nature, has been an important way for me to reckon with and continuously resolve in my heart what sometimes feels like an impossible relationship. In September’s show, "home", I explore the questions, “What does it mean to be home and to honor that relationship as sacred? How do our actions and intentions, and the rapport we create to home ripple affect the web of life? And if we truly hold our bodies, and our only planet as home, can we heal what is broken?”
As I house in my own body a developing baby girl, these questions have become more precious than ever. My body, a home, and how I come to terms with a sense of place in an ever challenged planet, moves me to express through my artwork a visual prayer for the collective home we call Earth, and some sense of an often inconceivable reckoning for what is broken. In, as Thomas Hartmann calls “these last hours of ancient sunlight”, there is irony, helplessness, beauty and hope, and ever an opportunity for healing.
~Melissa Leigh Friedman
