Working on a piece is an emotional, mental, physical, and oddly spiritual release, all happening separately and at the same time. I know that I am part of it, but it’s as if I am a medium. I tend to experience things too much for a while before I begin working--sometimes losing sense of boundaries between myself and others, or the concrete and the abstract.
My work is as much the process as the final product. Making each piece is a lot like a storm. At first, when getting everything together, it is pretty quiet and relaxing, yet I am aware that I will be getting lost & exhaustingly focused in some kind of marathon. I am both excited and somehow dreading it at the same time. If I don't work straight through in almost a compulsive and instinctive binge until something is mostly completed, the piece won't come together. It is as if my mind gets in the way and censors out things that it shouldn't. It might look more balanced, but it is less pure or honest.
They works are definitely different things to different people, and I do like this. I also like that seemingly people at least feel something for the work—whether it is good or bad. The grey area is rarely comfortable to me.
-Laura Kaplan