The "Mindscapes" series grew out of an experiment with my new laser cutter where I was cutting patterns that allowed paper to expand into the third dimension. I'd created the shape that is now "Under the Pleasuredome," and liked it. Then I did the spirals for "Lost/Found." The spirals tangled on me while I was expanding them, and I found the messy version much more interesting than the tidy spiral I'd had before. I thought "Dang, that looks like how I feel some days when I can't get my act together," and Poof! the idea for the series appeared in front of me ready to go.
The sculptures are (hopefully) interesting just for what they are, but having them be visual representations of what somebody might be thinking added extra layers that made creating these pieces much more intriguing to me. "A Happy Place" and "Go With The Flow" in particular were made to try to get a particular look or a particular thought into the set, unlike the first few, where I played with patterns and then let the piece tell me what the thoughts were behind it.
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All but one of the Mindscapes pieces have hand-written text lurking within. This one, the most autobiographical of the set, has three layers. There's the silvery "Lost," which is surrounded by over a dozen other phrases in black. You have to get really close, use a bright light, and/or move the paper around in order to get a good look at the doubts and fears crowding in around this mind. Finally, there's a final message that's only visible under ultraviolet light.
Because it's hard to read from the photo, I'll tell you that the message in this one is "Aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhouch!" I leave it to you to imagine why...
Hasn't everybody had a day like this?
This was supposed to be a flowing, relaxed design, but when I collapsed the circle, it morphed to a clover and got those sharp points. This didn't look like somebody relaxing to me. It's probably somebody doing a crazy yoga pose, balancing on one hand or some such. The full text reads "In through the nose, out through the mouth..."
Insufferably perky people, this is for you. I suppose the title of this piece is, to some degree, me expressing my version of the title of the following piece. The handwritten message starts out "I'm awesome!" and goes on from there. With hearts. And curlicues. Gah.
Although superficially similar to "Fortress of Solitude," this spiky pointy hostile mind has a very different intent. The first word of the message is "Don't."
When I finally found a design that conveyed this mood, I knew I was done with this series. This work does not have an internal monologue.