Perseverate

Perseverate is a verb that means “to repeat or prolong an action, thought, or utterance after the stimulus that prompted it has ceased.”

This body of work utilizes fiber arts and multi-media installation to share stories about our founder Joann’s experience of living with a family member with disabilities. This work reflects how her son’s daily experiences of frustration and anxiety impact all of the family members individually and in relationship to one another.

She writes, “In many ways, our family’s experience is echoed in our collective experience of what it’s been like to live through the pandemic. Because of COVID-19, we have all experienced extreme isolation, anxiety, and uncertainty. As we try to heal, we are continuously pulled back to the pain of this new reality.”

On an interpersonal level, this project is about how any family experience of trauma, addiction, or loss can be experienced as a series of patterns that perseverate, and how we struggle to extricate ourselves from that chaos and crisis in order to see the patterns of our own thoughts and behaviors - and to recognize those patterns that are not serving us - so that we can do the work in our own lives to change how we think and behave in order to be free from the chaos.

This work is supported by the Crosstown Artist Residency (2021) and an UrbanArt “Bridging the Distance” grant.