This project gives meaning to the many thoughts, ideas, and experiences that interlaced to create my BFA in Sculpture thesis show whose purpose is to call for still more thoughts, ideas, and experiences that add further meaning-making to it. For the installation, having its premiere exhibition at the Dorsky Museum of Art, is a means to an end, rather than an end in itself. It is a journey, not a destination. It is a work in process, rather than a staid product.
The installation, Broken Monarchs, is a kaleidoscope of some 5,000 ripped monarch butterflies monoprints. Each of them represents a migrant child or infant separated from his or her parents at the U.S.–Mexican border under the Trump–Pence administration’s “zero-tolerance policy.”
The massive swarm of uniquely hand-printed paper butterflies was produced in part as a result of a yearlong series of social engagement workshops. The butterflies are torn at the edges to capture the fragility of the immigrant children torn away from their families, while the colorful patterns conjure resilience and hope. These monarchs have escaped their cage and now congregate as they do in the oyamel fir forest after their epic annual fall migration.
Artist Residency: July 15 to August 20, 2022
Woodstock Artists Association & Museum
Opening Reception: July 16, from 4 to 6 pm
Exhibition: August 20 to September 11, 2022
Artist's Talk: August 20, 3 to 4 pm
YES Gallery
28 Tinker St., Woodstock, NY 12498
Telephone: 845-679-2940
WAAM Website: www.woodstockart.org
Opening Exhibition: May 6, 2022, from 5 to 7 pm
Dorsky Museum of Art, SUNY New Paltz
Alice and Horace Chandler Gallery
1 Hawk Drive, New Paltz, NY 12561
Museum Telephone: 845-257-3844
Museum Website: www.newpaltz.edu/dorskymuseum