Hopeful for Home
What is home? On the personal, local and global level “home” is undefinable. Spiritually, culturally, politically and historically home is where we are safe, secure and yet it is temporary, fragile and imperfect. Home is a place of comfort as well as pain and brokenness. There is a nostalgia we tie to the idea of home that we long for.
People are on the move. The average person in the United States will move 11.4 times in their lifetime (US Census Bureau 2013). Personally as a college student I have lived in a state of “in between” for the past 3 years. We move out of the house and exist in 2-4 years of dorms, apartments, houses and subleasing situations with people we meet along the way. Isla Vista is a revolving door- every year the community shifts as seniors leave and freshmen come. We move in and out living and creating a makeshift community. Home cannot be seen as merely a materialistic object but also an emotional sensation. It changes us and grows us as individuals. Home affects how we respond to life on a personal, local and global level.
As Robin Kelley put it, the marvelous is free... the map to a new world is in the imagination. “The most radical art is not protest art but works that take us to another place, envision a new way of seeing, perhaps a different way of feeling.” The gallery consists of 3 main parts: the personal, the local and the global aspects of home. The gallery as a whole is set up like a living room you might find in America. There is a couch, coffee table with reading material and television. On the wall behind the couch are frames of post-it-notes that UCSB students created throughout the quarter- their definitions of “home” in pictures, doodles and words. Common themes and narratives can be discovered in viewing the framed post its as well as flipping through the large book on the table. In the corner of the room is the personal side of the show- the buildings I associate with home painted on pieces of cardboard moving boxes from my most recent move. They sit above a rose patterned chair that came from the house I grew up in in Martinez California- the place I most associate with home. Roses transfer to the piece next to it, a piece of beauty amidst brokenness. The wicker chair found on the side of the road in Isla Vista is unrepaired and not functioning as it should. This hints to the larger narrative of brokenness in the world today. Above the chair are two paintings and a poem titled “la vie en rose” that challenge the viewer to be the change they want to see in the world.
Throughout the process of creating this show I’ve personally experienced revelation on the spiritual aspect of home in relation to the human soul. Inspired on the day of the event by a sermon titled My Heart, Christ’s Home by Robert Munger, the metaphor of home came to an even deeper, more eternal level. The home is a symbol for the heart… God being the architect who created humanity with a beautiful purpose and plan. He created us for wholeness and relationship with one another and Himself. He gave us the keys to this home but we locked him out- we made it dirty and broken and did everything to block him out of our lives- the gift of free will allowed us to choose whether or not He could enter our home. Revelation 3:20 says “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me”. Jesus is speaking here, knocking at the door of each of our hearts. We have the choice to invite him into our lives and let his love redeem the brokenness within. To invite the creator and architect of our heart’s home makes our hearts a residence of supernatural and authentic love- from which everything flows. In order to change the world, I believe we must first begin with changing our own hearts, opening the door to the authentic love that redeems the brokenness of our soul.
People are on the move. The average person in the United States will move 11.4 times in their lifetime (US Census Bureau 2013). Personally as a college student I have lived in a state of “in between” for the past 3 years. We move out of the house and exist in 2-4 years of dorms, apartments, houses and subleasing situations with people we meet along the way. Isla Vista is a revolving door- every year the community shifts as seniors leave and freshmen come. We move in and out living and creating a makeshift community. Home cannot be seen as merely a materialistic object but also an emotional sensation. It changes us and grows us as individuals. Home affects how we respond to life on a personal, local and global level.
As Robin Kelley put it, the marvelous is free... the map to a new world is in the imagination. “The most radical art is not protest art but works that take us to another place, envision a new way of seeing, perhaps a different way of feeling.” The gallery consists of 3 main parts: the personal, the local and the global aspects of home. The gallery as a whole is set up like a living room you might find in America. There is a couch, coffee table with reading material and television. On the wall behind the couch are frames of post-it-notes that UCSB students created throughout the quarter- their definitions of “home” in pictures, doodles and words. Common themes and narratives can be discovered in viewing the framed post its as well as flipping through the large book on the table. In the corner of the room is the personal side of the show- the buildings I associate with home painted on pieces of cardboard moving boxes from my most recent move. They sit above a rose patterned chair that came from the house I grew up in in Martinez California- the place I most associate with home. Roses transfer to the piece next to it, a piece of beauty amidst brokenness. The wicker chair found on the side of the road in Isla Vista is unrepaired and not functioning as it should. This hints to the larger narrative of brokenness in the world today. Above the chair are two paintings and a poem titled “la vie en rose” that challenge the viewer to be the change they want to see in the world.
Throughout the process of creating this show I’ve personally experienced revelation on the spiritual aspect of home in relation to the human soul. Inspired on the day of the event by a sermon titled My Heart, Christ’s Home by Robert Munger, the metaphor of home came to an even deeper, more eternal level. The home is a symbol for the heart… God being the architect who created humanity with a beautiful purpose and plan. He created us for wholeness and relationship with one another and Himself. He gave us the keys to this home but we locked him out- we made it dirty and broken and did everything to block him out of our lives- the gift of free will allowed us to choose whether or not He could enter our home. Revelation 3:20 says “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me”. Jesus is speaking here, knocking at the door of each of our hearts. We have the choice to invite him into our lives and let his love redeem the brokenness within. To invite the creator and architect of our heart’s home makes our hearts a residence of supernatural and authentic love- from which everything flows. In order to change the world, I believe we must first begin with changing our own hearts, opening the door to the authentic love that redeems the brokenness of our soul.
Tuesday December 4th friends and family gathered in Arts 1330 with food from the local Co-Op, music from Jasmine Guerro and Mark Barlow- members of Isla Vista Worship (Jasmine's soundcloud below--- listen to her while reading this post)
A letter from a dear friend Allie Kanne, one of the first hand addressed pieces of mail I received at my current house
"La vie en rose"
La Vie en Rose
(global poem)
The place where roses once bloomed
has been overcome with terror and gloom
La vie en rose has turned
into la vie en rouge
who will be the ones to choose
love over have
a global community we must create
united in our difference
make a difference
be the change
l’amour is within range.
Houses I've considered home: acrylic & house paint on moving boxes
http://www.islavistaworship.com : the music people!!! Jasmine & mark
special thanks to Eric & Chris for helping with research, set up, planning and creating!
my swimmers!
handmade bowl by Elaine Kelly: a similar soul
Home is where family is: my brother David and his girlfriend Kristen came down from SLO and surprised me! Oh my soul!
housemates/// sisters/// Ren & Charis
Move In to Move Out {local poem}
We learn, we grow
New stains on hand-me-down couches
On the walls local art hangs
Yet my roommate will never know
That I still have her anthropologie mug
Taken in the chaos of boxes and goodbyes
A souvenir from my second year on Sueno
Street corners ornamented with dressers
Dumpsters occupied with broken hangers
Our free box overflows with fortunes
Of clothes of our past identities and reject college tees
Two weeks of limbo top-ramen-living between leases
Learn to couch surf on waves of craigslist ads
Security deposit downsides
Holes left empty from nails that once held tapestries
I don’t want this anymore
Who does this belong to?
Four years of move ins and move outs
Introductions morph to goodbye parties
Convocation fast forward to graduation
One man’s Isla Vista is another man’s treasure
This is my feeling hopeful face
JASMINE!!!
Jenn found a kitty who stayed in the gallery until the end of the show!! "Home is where your cat is"
"Home is where your cat is"
Heaven’s Home
{Personal Poem}
Hopeful for home
I no longer feel so alone
My brokenness redeemed
The pain and hurt is not as it had seemed
My home is in the heart
Social engagement through art
home is wherever I’m with you
I was planted and there I grew
A heart remodeled by love
God’s forgiveness sent from above
That came down to earth and knocked
On the door to my heart, my life was forever rocked
He came in and made his home
For eternity I’ll never be alone
In his safety I’m made whole
Heaven is my destination and my goal
Home is with humanity
His name Jesus, in him I find love’s authenticity
My last breath here on earth
Will be my very first in heaven
Death of the physical
The birth of eternal life found on day seven
***Don't forget to water your soul
{Thank you to everyone who contributed in small and large ways, community is a beautiful thing. Thank you to the Isla Vista food Co-Op, Jasmine Guerrero, Chris & Eric, my current and previous housemates, Elaine Kelly, My family, and the ultimate creator: Jesus}