Dwell inspirations and readings

           Throughout the creation of Dwell, i learned various handicrafts to help complete the project one of these was wax dipping objects, usually bones, twigs, and feathers, though the occasional bug made it into the mix. This helped not only preserve the pieces but added a tactile nature to them. The waxes came in yellow and white and were often dripped on top the pieces, occasionally i would immerse the objects within the wax. It is something i greatly enjoyed doing in my practice and found it influencing other projects as well.
          Learning how to restore and maintain pieces also helped me significantly within this practice as well with the help of Russell Maycumber i was able to remove the various paints and stains that coated the wood, then try to identify the type of wood and then getting the bed ready for staging.


            Inspirations for Dwell, one of the obvious ones is another bed simply called Bed by Robert Rauschenberg, the beds both combine various objects both fabricated and found to protray the message they want to send. Both are self portraits of the artists and their dreamscapes, mine an empty void, with various totems tying me home, while Rauschenbergs is more of an assertion that his life and his art were connected.

                                                                 Bed by Rauschenberg

             Another thing that spawned this idea of partial bed making was a NY Times article i had read on the death of a man who isolated himself and how the city on New York would try to handle it. The article made me thing of my own connections and the things i keep to myself and the dreams i tell no one about. The empty bed was inspired by the empty vessel, the body hoe it holds all these things that it can choose never to release, the objects hanging within its maw is the disconnect between the physical and dream world. Thoughts that are active in sleep and dulled during the period you are awake. Whenever i think of this article and all the feelings it gives me it gives me hope that i will someday not die many lonely deaths but rather one fulfilled one.
     The Article: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/18/nyregion/dying-alone-in-new-york-city.html?_r=0