It’s time to pull back the curtain for the full reveal of (Feeling) Connected! I finished this piece and it’s ready to share. I hope you enjoy it!
Please keep going to read about the inspiration behind this piece and more. If you’re rather watch and listen, jump to the video at the end.
Image credit: Hilary Clark
The inspiration…
As always with my Feelings series, most of my inspiration comes from my empathetic nature. This holds true for Connected as well.
When we first moved to Florida in late March, I knew there were two pieces I wanted to make. The first was Isolated, which I completed in May. The second is this piece – Connected. I couldn’t make one without making the other. The two pieces mirror each other and each includes squares as design elements, but there the similarity ends.
Image credit: Hilary Clark
While Isolated was inspired by a cross-country move in the middle of a pandemic, Connected was inspired by its polarity to isolation. Even before the rising tide of the Black Lives Matter movement in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, I knew I’d make Connected. I had to. It represents the connection we all have to each other, black or white, due to the irrefutable fact of our humanness.
I feel this connection, constantly. I sometimes see it, as strands of sparkling light, connecting me to everyone and everything, ala the Matrix. That doesn’t mean I don’t have loads to learn; it just means I feel the connection and so I choose to do what strengthens it, rather than what weakens it.
My color choices…
For Connected, I chose the canvas palette colors of black and white because, in my mind, connection is that straight-forward. There’s no grey to the connection that exists between all of humanity.
The black and white squares represent individuals, houses, neighborhoods, countries. Some are mostly black, some are mostly white (and of course some are mostly brown – I just don’t possess any brown fabric and that fabric choice didn’t play well with the contrast I was trying to achieve).
Image credit: Hilary Clark
The connecting design elements – the waves of varying colors – represent the rainbow of uniqueness and individuality that exists for all of us. We are at once completely different from each other and yet remarkably the same, with flesh and blood and bone.
What this piece symbolizes…
Each square is linked to the others through the colored wave elements, a network of connection that can’t be broken, no matter how hard we might try.
The connection is ultimately a spiritual one, regardless of the form your belief system takes. We are all made of magical star stuff, coming from Spirit, choosing this human experience to learn and grow and love.
(Feeling) Connected is meant to symbolize the connection of universal love. I felt that connection as I was making this piece. In your viewing of it, I hope you can feel it too.
(To read the poem that accompanies this piece, you can do so here.)
Exit through the gift shop…
Connected is available for purchase and is listed at $2500. If you’d like to own this densely stitched, fused raw edge appliqué textured fiber painting, please get in touch.
If you’re ready for a private (virtual) showing of my art, you can schedule an appointment here.
To discuss commissioning me to make a textured fiber painting specifically for you or someone you love, please schedule an exploratory commissioning conversation and we’ll see what we can create together.
If you liked what you read (or watched if you chose the video), please share with the one person you absolutely know would like it too!
Hilary Clark Studios 
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