Artist Statement
"Wake Up: A Collection of Paintings" contains twenty-eight pages of eighteen original paintings that take the audience on a journey through the place of time. It begins on the first page representing December 3rd, 2010, and ends on the last page, which represents December 31st, 2010.
On December 3rd, 2010, I was ill. Over the course of that day, my condition worsened and I became so weak that my legs gave out mid-step. I was taken to the ER, where doctors diagnosed me with acute Transverse Myelitis (TM), inflammation of the spinal cord. Within a few hours after I was admitted, the weakness in my legs had progressed into complete paralysis from my navel down. The inflammation was so severe that it left me with a scarred and damaged spinal cord, and an uncertain prognosis.
After medically stabilizing, I spent until December 31st in inpatient rehabilitation, where I had physical and occupational therapy every single day. During this time period, no one was able to tell me if I would ever get better.
Though this journey has no end, I look back on my twenty-eight day hospital stay as a discrete piece of volatile, transitional time. It was a grueling uphill battle full of uncertainty. I felt both physically and emotionally displaced, as if my entire existence had been shattered. I was left alone, to pick up the pieces.
Dante Alighieri's poem Purgatorio takes the readers on a journey through the land of Purgatory- the realm, according to Catholic doctrine, somewhere between Heaven and Hell. Through the metaphor of a ten-tiered island mountain, Alighieri takes us to the physical manifestation of the transitional state after death; a suspension between realities. Souls sent to Purgatory are the only ones who can set themselves free, learning what they are required to learn before climbing to the top of the mountain and entering a better place, the tenth level, the Paradiso.
This book is my movement through a transitional no-man's land, and taking inspiration from Dante, I have given it physicality and a sense of place. The paintings are organized into nine sections, mirroring nine of the tiers of Purgatorio. Each section contains three consecutive pages that represent a time period of three days, titled as the first date of the three. This page, an unsorted standalone, represents the day I fell ill. The first section begins on the fourth.
The tenth tier, the top of the mountain, has been left out because my own journey has no destination, only enhanced clarity and a regained sense of control. If my story begins in chaos, it ends calmly- looking out into the unknown.
On December 3rd, 2010, I was ill. Over the course of that day, my condition worsened and I became so weak that my legs gave out mid-step. I was taken to the ER, where doctors diagnosed me with acute Transverse Myelitis (TM), inflammation of the spinal cord. Within a few hours after I was admitted, the weakness in my legs had progressed into complete paralysis from my navel down. The inflammation was so severe that it left me with a scarred and damaged spinal cord, and an uncertain prognosis.
After medically stabilizing, I spent until December 31st in inpatient rehabilitation, where I had physical and occupational therapy every single day. During this time period, no one was able to tell me if I would ever get better.
Though this journey has no end, I look back on my twenty-eight day hospital stay as a discrete piece of volatile, transitional time. It was a grueling uphill battle full of uncertainty. I felt both physically and emotionally displaced, as if my entire existence had been shattered. I was left alone, to pick up the pieces.
Dante Alighieri's poem Purgatorio takes the readers on a journey through the land of Purgatory- the realm, according to Catholic doctrine, somewhere between Heaven and Hell. Through the metaphor of a ten-tiered island mountain, Alighieri takes us to the physical manifestation of the transitional state after death; a suspension between realities. Souls sent to Purgatory are the only ones who can set themselves free, learning what they are required to learn before climbing to the top of the mountain and entering a better place, the tenth level, the Paradiso.
This book is my movement through a transitional no-man's land, and taking inspiration from Dante, I have given it physicality and a sense of place. The paintings are organized into nine sections, mirroring nine of the tiers of Purgatorio. Each section contains three consecutive pages that represent a time period of three days, titled as the first date of the three. This page, an unsorted standalone, represents the day I fell ill. The first section begins on the fourth.
The tenth tier, the top of the mountain, has been left out because my own journey has no destination, only enhanced clarity and a regained sense of control. If my story begins in chaos, it ends calmly- looking out into the unknown.