Unmasking Art Show Virtual Tour

"Bears and Butterflies" by Lydia Larsen
Mixed Media Shadow Box 15.5” x 15.5”

Artist Statement

Hello, my name is Lydia and I am sixteen years old. Thanks to being homeschooled my school has not been shut down due to COVID. I created my piece, Bears and Butterflies, using a wooden box, acrylic paints, foamboard, paper, graphite and colored pencils, clip art, wire, thread, chalk pastels, a touch of hairspray, and a whole lot of hot glue holding everything together. This finished project is the end result of starting off a session with too many half formed ideas and several studio nights of doodling.

When I started this session I thought that I was going to do a series of several small paintings. Evidently, that didn’t happen. I was eventually led to the idea of bears in cages. The caged bear is symbolic of anger and how it is dark and deadly. The angry bear in my finished piece is in a cage and being hauled away by butterflies and birds because I don’t want to be enslaved to my anger, I want my anger to be enslaved and for it to be taken away from me. There are things in my life that make me angry. I can’t control them, so I can only try to control my anger which I can’t do myself. Frequently I have to ask God to take away my anger and resentment and replace it with his love and peace. All the other animals in my shadow box represent the other things that live inside my heart. Another title that I considered for this piece was, “The Landscape of My Heart” but I decided to just be simple.

This session was different compared to every of my previous four sessions of Portable Vision. Having to do a part on zoom part in person session was far from ideal, but thankfully I got to be in person every time. After having to do last spring’s session mostly over zoom I am thankful for every in person night of PV and for time to hangout and connect with people in ways that are hard to accomplish over a computer screen. I am so thankful for all the realness that I witnessed and for all the fun I had over the past thirteen weeks. I really benefited from hearing the stories of my friends. Hearing all the real and hard stuff helps me be a better friend and gives me more understanding for the people around me. I would like to thank everyone who gave me encouraging and positive feedback on my piece and Ruby who was decidedly my mentor because she studio-ed closest to me.

Oral Statement