Lizzy Gracey ’22
Major(s): Psychology & Visual Arts
Driftwood, plaster, foam, resin, acrylic, polymer sculpey
45in tall, 46 in wide, 16 in deep (click image to enlarge)
The armature of this work is three pieces of driftwood. They each came from a different tree, with a unique life, a unique death, and a unique journey to the cove in which I found them. My work explores how to bring life back to found objects that were once alive but now represent articles of decay. I do not play the hand of God but rather the role of an inquirer.
During the time of covid, a mental health crisis, social upheaval, among a plethora of other catastrophes, when we feel at our lowest, how do we fill ourselves with life again? We are all perceptible to sink to the lowest and most void definition of life, and yet we have the resiliency to return to a life more beautiful than what came before. We return to a life that is full and growing and dripping and grotesque. Where does the resiliency to return to life again come from and how do we keep returning to it?