My work explores the acceptance of grief using automatic drawing, hollow vessels, contrasting colors and abstraction. I often use automatic drawing and a spontaneous way of working to process dreams and stories relating to grief and joy. My work is primarily made in flameworked glass, a technique historically explored by women, to create hollow vessels and three-dimensional linework. Additionally, I contrast bright and playful colors with dark and dull colors to abstractly represent mourning; the process of looking back on happy memories but being sad that you have lost them.
Because of my background in photography, I think in terms of positive/negative relations, especially when I work with hollow glass. Flameworked glass has historically been done by women, who were employed to make vessels, vials and lightbulbs in factories. I am also fascinated by glass as a container, which I relate to women because they were once only valued because of their ability to contain life. Therefore, flameworked glass feels like an appropriate medium to explore the grief and family stories of women in my life.
Both in my glass and in my prints, I use automatic linework as a playful, spontaneous and fun way to work. However, since drawing explores my subconscious, it often comes from a place of unease due to my neurodivergence. Even when I work in a spontaneous and playful way, pain often takes over and my work shows that. I like to use surface treatments such as sandblasting, painting and drawing on the glass, which echo the drawing in the prints. In the same way, my glass relates to the lines created in the prints through the use of networking.
My work is very experimental, and glass can be unpredictable, so it never ceases to surprise me. Those surprises and happy accidents then become a part of my process, and I believe that it leads me to discoveries about myself and my subconscious too. With these discoveries, I seek to heal myself and others through my work, which attempts to accept and acknowledge grief and pain as parts of life.
@luciacrmota
Studio Song: Windowpane by Opeth
