Joli Livaudais

When I was young, my mother taught me that God is love and that violence and destruction are constructs of man. Yet when I look around me at the marvelously balanced creation of the universe, I see a system founded in the deaths of the weak and unfortunate. The wheel of creation grinds endlessly, a ravening machine, terrifyingly pure in its lack of concern or gentleness. Yet, it is also beautiful, orderly, a profoundly synchronized web of vibrating particles.

Using both science and spirituality, people have attempted to understand these truths. I believe that this struggle to understand defines us as human beings. My artwork is my meditation on the mysteries of life, relationships and death, but it is also about the search for answers when my own flaws and frailties guarantee a myopic view of whatever truth I might discern.

I find that my carefully weighed conclusions about the human condition challenge me more than they provide any meaningful sense of safety, comfort, or promise of a happy ending. To exist is to struggle; to seek answers, however flawed they may be, is inevitable. In my artwork, this translates as an attention to process and labor-intensive practice. The patterns, layering, repetition and fragmentation are processes found in nature that are integral to the work and the meditation of creating it.