Inside-Out
Over these past several years I have been followed around by the need to represent the inner turmoil of an anxious mind in the exterior physical body. I have constructed abstract pieces in the past which represented states of mental health but stepping closer to human representation is more challenging
and frightening both artistically and personally.
As a university student I was shown a photograph of Donatello’s Mary Magdalene from the 14th Century. It is a wood sculpture depicting Mary emaciated, ragged and emotionally raw and unguarded. The piece makes me distinctly uncomfortable. I feel unsheltered, deeply moved and viscerally / mentally unsettled. Anxiety and depression happen inside of some of us, often hidden from those around while our minds inside spin and baulk, sink and fragment. What is hidden needs to be seen in concrete form to help us to understand, to have compassion, to see each other.
My wish is for you to be moved, unsettled by these images. See yourself or one you know here. We are many who appear calm but have turmoil inside.
Sheryl Crowley, Fractured Art Mosaics July 2017