Tired Bodies have a history of both constant and ever changing meaning for me in my work. The through line is always a body that is fatigued, weighed down, and yet somehow resistant, joyful, silly, and fighting. Sometimes, the body is one that is focused on failure and care, sometimes life and death, sometimes on motherhood, and so on. It is one of the joys of this work, that it can contain so much, and it is also the point: we and our bodies are full of multitudes.
Like the meaning, the materials in which I work remain constant while also engaging in change. Fiber based works remain a backbone of the physical work almost always, even while I incorporate construction materials, woodworking, ceramics, performance, photography, and more. This is one of the reasons the watercolors have remained a surprising and personal piece of this series. I began them as a method of experimentation and exploration, a personal one to be executed at home, on the sofa, where I had the freedom to think about color, ideas, forms, connections, and more without too much pressure. The practice has become consistent itself but I never really thought they would see the public in the way the Tired Body sculptures have.
These watercolors are also reflections of my own relationship to my body, a mental and physical connection which can often be at odds as someone who deals with chronic depression and anxiety. While I do produce them fairly regularly, the height of the production came at a time when I struggled to do almost anything other than the tasks which were required of me by the forces of daily living.
