The Heart Locker Regenerating – A Mobile Installation
This is what emerged after imagining the Heart Locker as a whole, in a context where it could play a larger role and reach more people. The first transformation was moving the installation from an enclosure with stationary walls to a horse trailer, making it mobile - possible to share at any location where I could park a trailer.
Then one day as I was hanging a new show in the trailer, I had an extraordinary vision of it as a living container with a Creosote growing up through the floor of the trailer. I imagined its roots extending into the earth and its branches reaching toward the broken hearts, taking their pain into its vessels and channeling it deep into the earth. I imagined the heartbreak being transformed into love flowing back up, healing the broken parts. The Heart Locker Regenerating was born.
Then one day as I was hanging a new show in the trailer, I had an extraordinary vision of it as a living container with a Creosote growing up through the floor of the trailer. I imagined its roots extending into the earth and its branches reaching toward the broken hearts, taking their pain into its vessels and channeling it deep into the earth. I imagined the heartbreak being transformed into love flowing back up, healing the broken parts. The Heart Locker Regenerating was born.
One of the oldest living plants on earth, Creosote symbolizes for me an ability to connect with what is essential, enduring, and regenerating. Envisioning it as part of the installation, I immediately thought of the exquisite Creosote drawings by Jillian Sandell. The subsequent collaboration with Jillian Sandell and Doug Blanc resulted in the beautiful paintings they created on the walls of the trailer.
The Heart Locker Regenerating is the result of an evolving process I have been experiencing mentally/ emotionally/ spiritually, during a time dominated by a pandemic, political upheaval, and the relentless advance of climate change. It is about loving, being broken, then healing and loving again.
The Heart Locker Regenerating is the result of an evolving process I have been experiencing mentally/ emotionally/ spiritually, during a time dominated by a pandemic, political upheaval, and the relentless advance of climate change. It is about loving, being broken, then healing and loving again.
I have discovered that as my heart breaks and heals, breaks and heals, over and over again, amazingly it becomes stronger in those healing places; and I find that the sculptures continue to evolve as I do. The fractures in the sculptured hearts become fused with inlays of gold and turquoise and connected by copper strands weaving through them – many no longer pierced by hooks, but hung on copper tendrils emerging from them.
I see visitors to the Heart Locker connecting with their own experiences. The installation provides a space for listening and an invitation to share. There is a potential for transformation, and a possibility for healing in the present moment. When this occurs it is my hope that it activates a Caring that ripples out into the world.
I see visitors to the Heart Locker connecting with their own experiences. The installation provides a space for listening and an invitation to share. There is a potential for transformation, and a possibility for healing in the present moment. When this occurs it is my hope that it activates a Caring that ripples out into the world.