Unbearable Sweetness of Being

My inspiration for this mask came from my personal experience as a spinal cord injury survivor. I realize one person’s life influences the lives of an unbelievable number of people, one of the most important lessons I learned being the teacher of small children in Kindergarten in my earlier career. Recently as I participated in a variety of art-centered activities including speaking to at-risk youth art groups and sharing survivor stories with people in a recovery art group, realize that I have a unique opportunity to hopefully inspire and influence people facing life’s obstacles as I am myself a spinal cord injury survivor. For this “mask” I used texture and lines because it adds a presence of hand, which symbolizes the fabric or texture of life. Textures and lines convey a lot of feeling for me, like the marks and scars in life.

My work speaks of hope out of adversity and my wish to illicit inspiration for the public. The expressions in this mask are personal and directed from within. As a person with high spirit and very positive views about life, I choose to tolerate the pain from my spinal cord damage as a blessing—a blessing I have been given abundantly. It is a spontaneous transformation process of using unpleasant feelings to create something magnificent and beautiful. This was the goal I had in mind as I painted this mask.