Ceramics

Inhale Nightmares Exhale Sunshine, 2021

Ceramics, dirt, and found objects

7 ft x 6 ft x 3 ft

Artist Statement

Snails roam but never are homeless.

A slimy body slips through a rift,

its shell shatters into fractals. 

Inhale Nightmares, Exhale Sunshine is the mantra of this whimsical snail, a sluggish creature. Western culture often considers slowness a negative quality, it goes against the hustle of capitalism and represents sloth as sinful. However, slowness can be a state of tranquility embodying how to remain present. Being hasty does not coincide readily with being mindful of how one wants to exist. 

The snail’s spiral shell represents the cycles of life, death, and rebirth. Additionally, spirals express direction and journey. It is a continual flow suggesting dance, time, transformation, and infiniteness. As a snail’s shell grows, its decisions delicately alter the outcome. The shell is history and the environment which envelops the living. The snail has paused atop a bed of dirt mixed with clay from another snail and found objects. Earth gave the snail its life and eventually will decompose it back into mud. 

While growing up we are indoctrinated by the external world. Eventually, one realizes their viewpoint may not align with everything they learned. Ideas from history, culture, and the people currently designing the world pop up in one’s mind as if the thought is one’s own. These ideas when not weeded out may entangle the mind. Although we do not have complete control over our environment, we have jurisdiction over the people we are surrounded by. Tending to one’s situation slowly builds tranquility, planting seeds for the desired journey.