mood III
The third installment in our new series called, a mood, is with artist Serrah Russell. We reached out to Serrah at the suggestion of artist, Alyson Provax, who was featured previously.
In a mood, invited artists share images, either of their own or from others that inspire them, on our blog and Instagram. A short piece of writing; a description of the mood board, a poem, or other writing may be included by the artist, as well as a music playlist or other aspects of ephemera related to the artist’s vision.
The soft, the fragrant, the sweet, it is still here for you - though you may not recognize it at first.
What a world to now find ourselves in,
to be delighted and horrified,
all together.
Has it always been this way?
— Serrah Russell
Sleep in separate rooms.
Whisper to each other.
Sleep in separate cities.
Sleep in separate countries.
Sleep on separate planets.
Whisper to each other.
— Yoko Ono, Room Piece II
Empathy can be a hole through which one falls into despair. Tears make the ground slippery. And then what? Satisfaction for the depth of one's feeling? If I am not myself in danger, then my imagining myself into the place of another's suffering unnecessarily incapacitates me, makes me unable to move some small part of my day in a direction that would make other lives more possible. And at this moment, my body still working to knit itself back together, the task is not to fall apart. The task is to remain.
— Heather Christle, The Crying Book
Top left to bottom right: (1) Birthe Piontek, Abendlied (2) Alyson Provax, you have to hold this (3) Maggie Carson Romano, Well (4) Jon Feinstein - Breathers (5) Joey Veltkamp, What a time to be alive (6) Josh Smith, The First Years (7) Jennifer McClure (8) Rafael Soldi, Imagined Futures (9) Jenny Holzer, In a dream you saw a way to survive and you were full of joy
Screenshot of I Am Much Too Alone in This World, Yet Not Alone by Rainer Maria Rilke
Serrah Russell (b. 1986) is a Seattle, WA based visual artist and independent curator. She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Photography from the University of Washington in 2009 and has since exhibited her art in solo and group exhibitions throughout the Pacific Northwest and in Vancouver, British Columbia; Melbourne, Australia; London, England; Athens, Greece, Los Angeles, CA and New York, NY. Her work investigates the malleability of the photographic image and explores subject and surrounding through the relationship of emotional and physical landscapes.
To see more of Serrah’s work please visit her website or follow her on Instagram @serrahrussell.