The role of art making is many things depending on what background the onlooker comes from; historian, critic, viewer, fellow artist, family member, theorist, etc.. All of these backgrounds have one thing in common and that is they are are onlookers peering from the outside. How is the role of art making perceived from within, from artists themselves?

As I was thinking about this, the idea of personal autonomy arose nearly instantaneously. The process of making art, for me anyways, is an extremely personal experience. It is a way of talking to and learning about myself without language, in a visual language only I can fully understand. Eventually, this personal experience unknowingly turned into a miniature universe of my own creation. It was and still is an invisible palace only I have the key to. In this palace, the ordinary world ceases to exist, or perhaps changes so drastically that it ceases to be recognizable. This palace is limitless and allows me to be completely free from the ordinary world, including all the weight of matter and mind: memories, desires, fears, the existence of others and of time itself.

I’ve enjoyed moments of non-perception for as long as I can remember, where there is no one to perceive me and there is not even a me to perceive myself. It will sound contradictory but though this palace was born from my own creation, it is a palace of total surrender. This is a sacred space where I can fully surrender myself to the present moment. It is important to have a space within oneself to retreat into, a private space only you can go. Art making has given me that space of absolute autonomy, a space where nothing and no one, not even myself, can hold me back. This palace is invisible and therefore not stagnant, meaning it slowly grows and grows until one day I believe it will not be a palace that I go to visit but rather a perception from which I will live my entire life through.