Sculpture, 2016

Contradictions permeate our lives.

They reside in all layers of the sacred and mundane.

They form the framework of not just our feelings 

but also our existence.

We are passionate and apathetic,

hopeful and despairing,

fragile and resilient,

becoming and stagnating,

connected and separate.

We put things into categories to make sense of life.

Gaping chasms and deep-seated polarizations often result.

Male and Female.

Good and Bad.

Mortal and Immortal.

Us and Them.

What if a greater understanding, a deeper compassion and a richer experience come when we pull things together rather than push them apart?  Is it possible that our contradictions are more created and chosen than indisputable fact?

What if who we become in life has a lot to do with how we deal with our contradictions?

What if the world we’re creating on the outside mirrors the world we’re creating on the inside?

What if everything can change when we shift our perspective,

of anything, even the smallest “contradiction”?

I am seeking this change, this understanding, this compassion.

I believe if I am to see it on a larger scale, I must start with myself, 

and so this project is an exploration of the contradictions I find deep within.

Can I do something different with what seems contradictory there?

Who am I without the intense judging, comparing and categorizing?

Can I hold my intense longing and crushing fear without demonizing or polarizing either?

What would it mean to embrace what I love and what I hate 

within both myself and my experience?

I hope you will ask these questions, too,

and that together we will create different lives, different communities, a different world.