"Vaults" Artist Statement

Within:

My current practice and body of work uses water as a metaphor to illustrate the ever-present alchemy of our existence.  Water is the essence of life.  In its duality, water is extremely powerful – crashing and yet, also calming; we cannot live without it. Many of the sculptures work in harmony with my giclee print photographs.In this installation “Within,” I want to evoke in the viewer a sense of the awesome power of this life giving force on a meditative level, bringing home the idea that it lives within us all.  Having grown up around water, I have always had a personal affinity towards it.  When I dive into any body of water I immediately have an intense and profound sense of joy and wonder.  There is a meditative calmness that resides beyond the crashing waves and intense sensory experience of the physical world above.  This same calmness resides in all of us, thus we each have the capacity to attain this feeling of inner serenity.  It is this sense of the sublime wonder coupled with a meditative introspection of another experience that I want to convey to others in the next level of exploration in my artwork.

“Veil”

Taliaferro has always had a personal affinity towards water- “When I dive into any body of water I immediately have an intense and profound sense of joy and wonder.” Water is the essence of life.  Like our blue planet, our bodies are 70% water, yet we still have a need to ground ourselves; the paradox of standing still while always flowing. This installation sensually explores the powerful states of being within water.  “Veil” offers the viewer an interactive experience through a chance to play with the dewdrops of water.  It brings out both the child and the spirit breaking down our own veils taking us to a deep, fun and joyful place within.Come INSIDE- Through the Veil and PLAY

Artist Statement

This body of work uses water as a metaphor to illustrate the ever-present alchemy of our existence. Water is the essence of life. In its duality, water is extremely powerful - crashing and yet, also, calming; we cannot live without it. The work explores the different states of being within water. It touches on how we flow through our lives striving for a state of grace and beauty. Like our blue planet, our bodies are 70% water, yet we still have a need to ground ourselves; the paradox of standing still while always flowing. In many ways we are between states, part spirit and part matter, part liquid and part solid. I sought to use the lyrical dance of light, space and color to explore and manifest these ideas in glass and photography.

Having grown up around water, I have always had a personal affinity towards it. When I dive into any body of water I immediately have an intense and profound sense of joy and wonder. Both water and glass have an amazing ability to reflect and refract light. Their prismatic qualities display the infinite patterns of nature in exquisite variety. These reflections illustrate the organic order in nature that is defined by the divine mathematical proportion of the golden mean. Further examples in water can be seen in the hollow curl of a wave or the rhythmic distance between ripples on a lake. Journalist, Steve Hawk, sums up these sensations beautifully in the film, Stepping into Liquid:

The wave is a unifying force in the universe. There are light waves, sound waves, and ocean waves are the only form in which they are at a human scale. They move at a speed about as fast as we run. They’re in this beautiful medium- the Ocean. All it takes is one wave, not even that, one turn, you know, just a moment. It keeps pulling you back to have another moment. It never ends.

Space and distance are just as critical as matter. Every atom in the world is empty. All our cells have a nucleus, but they are mostly space. Through my sculpture, I've tried to capture this space in between and within illustrating the importance of what is inside of us, as well as the energy that exists between two people when connecting with each other. These thoughts are represented in the hollows of the sensual forms and the ways the light shifts through them changing the hues of the color and the colors themselves. It illustrates my kaleidoscope theory of color and its infinite variations representing the layers and complexity of each individual self as well as our relationships towards each other.

The Legend of the Baal-shem describes infinity as “its end is already contained in its beginning, and a new beginning in its end.” Therefore, one might find infinity in the space in between by simultaneously listening to the passionate songs and the stillness that lie within. For me, this is the exquisite mystical beauty of life contained in every drop of water and every breath we take.
As an artist, I infuse each piece with elements of these concepts. Each viewer brings his or her own experiences, so my thoughts are only meant as an addition to how the audience sees the work. Above all, I want the viewer to EXPERIENCE the work- to feel it and find a moment of peace or beauty.

The highest goodness is like water. Water benefits all things and does not compete. It stays in the lowly places which others despise. Therefore it is near the eternal.
-Tao Te Ching

Poetic Statement