Phoenix: Fear Burning, Hope Rising

Location

CSU Ballroom

Start Date

16-4-2013 2:00 PM

End Date

16-4-2013 4:00 PM

Student's Major

Art

Student's College

Arts and Humanities

Mentor's Name

Elizabeth Miller

Mentor's Department

Art

Mentor's College

Arts and Humanities

Second Mentor's Name

Alisa Eimen

Second Mentor's Department

Art

Second Mentor's College

Arts and Humanities

Description

My project is a sort of ceremony about letting go of fear. To do this I have created two acrylic paintings depicting a phoenix at different points of its life: death and rebirth. The intent is for the audience to interact with the pieces: I encourage them to participate by adding “parts of themselves”(their fears) to the canvas of the dying phoenix. This can be done using “leaves” I have prepared with canvas scrap, upon which an audience member may write a fear, worry, or phobia so that it can be attached to the canvas. This allows the participant to add what troubles them discreetly. Once the process of “adding oneself” to the canvas is complete, this older phoenix will be taken to an outdoor location. The leaves added to the canvas by audience members will be turned and read one by one, until all fears, phobias, and worries have been exposed. When this is completed the canvas, leaves and all, will be lit on fire and destroyed, leaving the livelier phoenix (and ashes of the elder) as all that remains of the set. In conducting this ceremony, my wish is for the audience to find relief in that fear is but a temporary burden that need not weigh them down, and that they, like the phoenix, can continue on. We are not our fears. Though these things are a part of us, they need not stop us from living our lives. Sometimes, It’s okay to let go.

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Apr 16th, 2:00 PM Apr 16th, 4:00 PM

Phoenix: Fear Burning, Hope Rising

CSU Ballroom

My project is a sort of ceremony about letting go of fear. To do this I have created two acrylic paintings depicting a phoenix at different points of its life: death and rebirth. The intent is for the audience to interact with the pieces: I encourage them to participate by adding “parts of themselves”(their fears) to the canvas of the dying phoenix. This can be done using “leaves” I have prepared with canvas scrap, upon which an audience member may write a fear, worry, or phobia so that it can be attached to the canvas. This allows the participant to add what troubles them discreetly. Once the process of “adding oneself” to the canvas is complete, this older phoenix will be taken to an outdoor location. The leaves added to the canvas by audience members will be turned and read one by one, until all fears, phobias, and worries have been exposed. When this is completed the canvas, leaves and all, will be lit on fire and destroyed, leaving the livelier phoenix (and ashes of the elder) as all that remains of the set. In conducting this ceremony, my wish is for the audience to find relief in that fear is but a temporary burden that need not weigh them down, and that they, like the phoenix, can continue on. We are not our fears. Though these things are a part of us, they need not stop us from living our lives. Sometimes, It’s okay to let go.

Recommended Citation

Dick, Katelyn. "Phoenix: Fear Burning, Hope Rising." Undergraduate Research Symposium, Mankato, MN, April 16, 2013.
https://cornerstone.lib.mnsu.edu/urs/2013/poster-session-B/26