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Emotions significantly impact an individual's life, influencing relationships, decision-making, and mental health. Feelings such as happiness, sadness, fear, anger, and disgust can dramatically alter our actions and inherently keep us from our true desires. My primary focus in my thesis is to illuminate and expose emotions that often remain uncomfortable, unseen, or deemed unacceptable by societal standards. Unpleasant feelings are frequently labeled as “shameful” or “unworthy” and are often ignored. Societal factors such as religion, culture, gender norms, race, and mental health awareness influence how an individual perceives the interior and exterior world around them. The absence of healthy forms of expression creates a disconnect from ourselves, allowing our souls to carry the weight of constant reminders of lower vibrational frequencies such as pain, fear, sadness, and anger. By neglecting our emotional needs, we not only do a disservice to ourselves but also jeopardize our relationships with family, friends, and other vital connections.
My art exhibition will provide viewers with the opportunity to acknowledge and release their emotions in a safe space without judgment. It will be an interactive exhibition where audience members wander through the gallery, viewing nine acrylic paintings. Each painting measures five by four feet and depicts an emotional experience as its own “entity.” If an audience member feels drawn to a painting, they can approach it and reflect on their own emotions and personal experiences while viewing the piece. If they need to release an unresolved emotion, they can write it down on paper provided next to each painting. Each paper is colored and coordinated with its assigned painting. The individual then walks over to the sculpted tree, “transferring” their unwanted or uncomfortable emotion to the tree. After the show concludes, I will collect all the papers and burn them in a fire, surrendering the thoughts and feelings of my viewers to the universe.