I keep making anatomical hearts because it's the organ that best represents what it takes to do this sort of work. Every creation is pulled from the heart, tugs at it, sometimes breaks it along the way, but then fills it back up until it bubbles over with something new.
"PNW Heart" isn't so much a bleeding heart as a dripping heart. I like the way that drips and oozes are somewhat ambiguous. They portray leaky bodies, bodies out of bounds, but they're also representative of both strife and life. Maybe tears, maybe slime being purged, maybe just life seeping beyond itself--I love the multiple interpretive possibilities encapsulated in drips!
With this piece, I wanted to pay homage to the forests of Vancouver Island that I'm lucky to stroll through every day. Ferns at different stages of growth, fiddleheads, mosses, and lichens grow out of the surface and look almost sanguine themselves. Sometimes it's only in making something that you understand it: with this piece I understood for the first time that biology is intimately entwined with botany.
This heart has a solid steel backing, welded onto its sides, and hangs from two loops also welded onto its back. Its drips have been dipped in a protective coat of resin, which also acts to make each drip look permanently wet.
Materials: Recycled Cotton, Waxed Polyester, Powder Coated Steel, Aluminum Wire
Dimensions: Height 18" x Width 11" x Depth 3" (weight approx 2lbs)
