It was just time

For the past couple of weeks I have been engaged in a major cleaning.  More than a cleaning, it’s been closer to a profound purge. I have been wanting to do this for years, but somehow I could never make it happen, but as my birthday rolled around last week and I turned 45, my body sprung into action.  I have no idea why, but apparently it was just time.

 It amazes me that it has taken so long for me to do this. Clearly, if it was just about cleaning I would have done it ages ago, but it's become stunningly clear  just how much weight objects, photographs and clothing hold. Aside from the fact they take up space and clutter our lives, they can also keep us glued to past memories and self identities that are no longer relevant.  The obvious action is to just let these objects go, but like most issues of the human psyche, what is obvious is not always what we do- or should do for that matter.  Everything in its time, as they say.

This struggle with the weight of the past has been a big subject in my art. I have often worked with images of luggage in an effort to somehow articulate the experience of what it is like to be burdened by psychological weight and more recently have worked with images of what it may look like to let go of  this weight. This is one of the videos I made about releasing the baggage.  At the time I made it, in 2008, it surprised me that I could makes something so playful  about a subject that really wasn't very funny at the time. I am glad that I now can sit back and enjoy the humor.