Kickstarter

"Transcendental Homelessness" is a painting exhibition with a very unique installation.  To pull it off, I need your help!

I have been working hard this year in preparation for my final show as a student, my MFA Thesis Exhibition.  This is the show that will not only demonstrate what I have learned over the past seven years while studying art, but will also be my debut into the professional art world.  As such, these works and the presentation of these works is extremely important to my future.

My current work, and the paintings featured in this show investigate my own spirituality through the concept of transcendental homelessness.  Transcendental homelessness, as defined by Ellen Dissanayake, is "the longing within a secular society for the sacred...of the rootless questioning mind for the absolute."

Because my works seek to have this feeling of secular grace, how they are hung in the exhibition becomes very important.  I did not want the paintings to just be simply hung on the wall in a frame.  That seemed to 'box' them in too much, to tie them down into just being images.  I wanted them to be presented so that, although they are small, they seemed to be important in the way that religious paintings were in the past.

Then I had a thought.  This past year, with the help of some sculpture graduate students, I had been experimenting with life casting.  Since I have always used my own body as imagery in my paintings, this seemed like an obvious next step.  So with this experience in mind, I decided to hang my paintings non-traditionally, set on a pair of my own hands, cast in plaster.  These hands are then attached to the wall.  Thus, the paintings will seem to be an offering to the viewers instead of simply hung for them to view.

However, this requires casting thirty-six different hands!  And since casting materials are very expensive, I am asking for your help.  The $250 that we are shooting for will at least cover the casting materials needed for the show.  But if you can help me raise more than $250, that money won't just be going into my pocket!  It will help cover the cost of the wood to back the pieces, the vinyl show lettering, the print costs for advertising, the food at the opening, even  the material costs in making the paintings.  And your donations come with very cool rewards, especially if Pennsylvania is too far for you to see the show in person!

Additionally, your donations will not only help out for this one show.  I will be able to use these paintings and the cast hands in many shows in the future as I start working to get shows in more professional venues.  Who knows, maybe I'll be able to get a show with these works near YOU in the future!

So thank you so much for your consideration.

And now I must get back to frantically painting!