Soul Vessels: Artist Statement: Kim Bellavia

"The soul--which I'm defining as our capacity for these deeply positive human qualities--is something that, in most of us, desperately needs to be developed. Too many of us live in a fractured state, deeply divided against ourselves--often far more so than we are aware of or able to feel. We exist in a self-generated vacuum of moral ambiguity, where everything is relative and our attention is focused mainly on our emotional state. Most of us know a lot more about what really matters than we are willing to live up to. Indeed, we are attracted to that which is beautiful, profound, and meaningful but find ourselves lacking the soul strength to really struggle, to engage in a life-and-death wrestling match with our own division, cynicism, and inertia. The awful truth is that it is just easier for us not to care that much. In order to care that much, we have to be willing to feel a connection with life that is so deep that it hurts. We have to be ready to step onto the field of our own experience in a way that is authentic, unconditional, and deeply committed--to embrace a kind of fearless vulnerability where our transparency is our strength and the living experience of connection is permanent, unbroken, and inescapable. (Andrew Cohen)

As an artist the purpose of my work is to give form and contrast to the notions of "being. I think that the natural environment in which we live is a reflection of who we are as beings. My studio work is the process of making a dialogue with the natural world and creating abstract interpretations of the natural world in relation to the human experience, depicting how nature and human nature weave themselves into the intrigue of life and the entropy of existence. My creative process and its outcome are not only to be understood as aesthetic but also as a comprehensive attitude toward life.

Soul Vessels is an installation series containing twenty sculptures that contemplate a connection between nature and the human soul. The natural world with its images, roles, patterns, processes, events and animate beings is a means of characterizing identity to the soul as an ultimate place. The language of nature is how soul identifies itself to us. Each piece is a seed pod vessel shaped form, representing a person or the essence of a person, as sculptural abstract portraits. The space inside the forms, are metaphor for a simple refuge or containers for intimate feelings and desires, the ultimate place, emphasizing the space as a place for inhabitancy. Each piece is made of different natural materials found in nature such as moss, grape vine, a variety of barks, etc. The piece titled “For the Love of Wine”, is made of grape vines and inside the form is a small sculpture of a cup bearer holding a cup of wine. The wine bearer can only be fully seen if the door is opened. Another piece title, “Solitude”, is made out of homemade paper and lichen, it has a nest like form containing white feathers. This piece refers to solitude as being white and soft, a comfort zone of security that comes with being alone. “Childhood Memories”, is made of green Spanish moss on the outside and filled with a variety of mosses in the inside. This fairy house like vessel contains a swing in reference to the joys of childhood memories and the sensation of swinging. The work as a whole is made up of the mystery and intelligence I see in natural forms and soul encounters with nature. The mystery is the threshold of discovery between our outer nature and inner selves. The natural organic materials that compose this work are the instruments for breaking the boundaries between external world and internal self, revealing a myriad of worlds or souls. I see these constructive connections as fragments of time in a life.