De[Constructed], Transforming Reality -- BFA Senior Thesis 2016
Lenie’s senior BFA thesis was based on her point of view of what is wrong with society from a war veteran’s perspective.
From the lack of empathy in trying the understand another country’s culture and ways (Lost in Translation, and It’s Really a Global Issue), to the lack of empathy in understanding our own cultural struggles (American Concept, and For Which it Stands), to the bureaucracy in our medical systems (Piece Meal, A Relic Answer, My Answer No More, and Red Tape), and how our society pushes negative norms to divide communities (One’s Own Way).
InnerConnected Series
It is the physics of the transition: the slow, tectonic movement of a soul rebuilding its own foundation. The InnerConnected series moves from the specific witness of war into a broader investigation of how any soul survives contact with the world. These abstract forms map the quiet forces, wounds, and repairs that define a life in motion. This is the language of the long recovery:
- Rings represent the soul and the entities we encounter.
- Spears represent the stressors: the external forces that pull, puncture, and test our structural integrity.
- Varying Finishes record the distinct journeys we take; some surfaces are glossy and untouched, while others are crackled by the heat of experience.
- Kintsugi represents the healing of the illusion of brokenness, asserting that the mend is where the light enters.
These works illustrate a universal truth: some connections are bonded more deeply than others, but none are impervious to the stressors of life and time. We are all durable and we are all susceptible to the weight of living.
Metatron's Zodiac Grid Incense Burner
After years of excavation, I needed a practice that oriented me in time. Something ancient, cyclical, and larger than my own wound. Sacred geometry gave me that. The twelve zodiac figures of Metatron’s Zodiac Grid are ritual technology and devotional forms at once: each hand-built in clay, each carrying its sign’s power color in the eyes, each releasing incense smoke in its own way. The base is structured around Metatron’s Cube, holding six crystal positions and a seventh focus crystal holder on each figure. The Tree of Life, the Triquetra, and the Triskelion are carved into its three faces. This is the altar I built for myself.
