Even Flowers Can Grow out of a Mound of Shi

In this paper, I attempt to explore the importance of flaws, trauma, and repression within the artistic process. I assert the need for self-scrutiny and cathartic expression of my inner struggles. Using surrealist methodologies, I flip the interior and exterior evoking concepts of the unconscious, abjection, and the Lacanian "real." By asserting the need for positive coping mechanisms, I employ chance operations, bricolage, and an obsessive vocabulary of line work to sublimate these flaws. I am in the midst of cultivating a poetic openness within my work divorced from an ultimate definition. Confronting my desire for absolution, I contest that art becomes the only answer to make the world bearable. I encourage the pursuit of a personal becoming no matter how vulnerable and unfamiliar that outcome may prove.