This collection was a solo exhibition at Copeland Furniture, Adrian MI. Following is the statement and then all the images, possibly with a video at the end.
Summer Sonnet: Building the American Dream
Candice Sires
At the culmination of my high school career, I was presented with a sketchbook in which was inscribed the quote, “Every artist dips his brush in his own soul and paints his own nature into his pictures. ~ Henry Ward Beecher”. However, over the past few years I have received a quantity of critique for ‘not being present in my work’. I couldn’t see how this was possible, I had poured myself into those pieces! It felt more like I was being accused of fraud. Following my senior exhibition I stepped away from the art field for a couple months and upon returning I found that even though I knew I was present in my work, it was possible the part of my identity they had wanted to see I had kept buried under the many layers of my images. So I set to a path most different from my previous digital imaging and Photoshop work, lacking the costuming and extravagant makeup and set designs which had become my signature. Now to offer a less obscured story of myself I present a documentary of my summer. Its not an extremely thorough documentary, nor very accurate to its definition, but every image represents physical aspects of this past summer as well as contain glimpses of my emotional and spiritual journeys in that time.
After graduation last spring my mom told me she had found a lump in one in of her breasts, two weeks later she was diagnosed with Breast Cancer. The first woman in our family to be diagnosed younger than 75. She proceeded with a double mastectomy followed by chemo and radiation treatments. She is almost ¾ of the way through her treatments and is still working full time at the hospital. This is the greatest hardship my family has been fighting through this summer but I wanted to reveal it without giving the situation any power, rather shown in a light of hope, seeing the strength and feeling the support. In ‘5. TAKE BREAKS’ myself and a few of her friends had taken her out on the water to ski showing our support for her to be able to do what she loves and belief in her strength and determination.
From May through August I commuted 3 hours for work every week. I worked 4-10s as an exterior house painter only to turn around, drive home and spend my 3 day weekend taking care of my mom’s 8 acre property so she could recover from the surgeries, treatments and long work shifts. ‘12. COMMIT YOURSELF’ is for every Monday when I got up at 3am to load my week’s luggage into the car and head to work. It represents the dedication and discipline I had to establish to keep the balance in my life between work and helping my family as well as preparing for the trip back to Michigan. ‘9. MOVE ON’ is to represent the physical miles I traveled between the drive to and from school at either end of the summer, the weekly trips to Moscow for work and several rounds to Seattle. It also symbolizes a sense of being lost and wandering because I felt I was at a standstill by working a job I didn’t want as a career without knowing how to break into the career I wanted, getting trapped at home mostly by my own sense of ethics but undecided on where to go even if I felt free and lastly feeling like my spiritual walk with God should be getting stronger through my trials yet being unable to sense a change in my faith.
Though not completely out of debt from buying a new laptop to finish my senior exhibition, I worked hard. ‘2. WORK HARDER’ represents the effort I put in at work to make enough money to pay my bills and dedication I put in on the weekends working toward the landscaped small farm my mom had been dreaming of since moving to that place. I found that I work hard for myself, but I work harder for others and hardest of all to fulfill dreams and passions. My main financial goal was to be able to afford a vehicle by the fall and I made enough by July to pay cash for my first car, a 1974 Mercedes-Benz 240D! I took my mom and sister and drove an hour out of town to see it, I fell in love and insisted on driving it home. ‘7. REWARD YOURSELF’ could be an image of my best first date! His name is now Charleton and he has never actually left me stranded anywhere but there were a few electrical issues so upon getting him home my mom and I pulled the wiring out to fix the bad connections. It was over 2 months later before we had him put back together, with my cousin’s help (a Mercedes mechanic). ‘8. NEVER GIVE UP’ is because I had gone above managing all the housework, yardwork and family goals to also attain my personal goal of buying my first car, only for it to be disconnected for the first several months. I was so frustrated! But I had to remember that whether or not he was currently running he was still the completion of my goal and a step in the right direction.
I don’t want to claim I had unfailing strength and calm through these times. There were numerous occasions where I broke down, crying out of anger, frustration and loneliness. But that’s where ‘6. ASK FOR GUIDANCE’, ‘10. LOVE OTHERS’ and ‘13. ACCEPT HELP’ come in. The easiest way to learn is to let someone teach you, heal by loving others and get back up by taking hold of the offered hand: such simple solutions yet my pride made them easy to overlook. These were my worst obstacles causing me the most pain.
These images were designed to capture many different aspects of my summer. To share a story, but not just my own; Hardship, work, pain and weakness are all part of life but equally so are family, strength, the support of friends and the ultimate grace of God. The conclusion of life is death, but the journey is where we have purpose and freedom of choice. We get to choose who we help, who we love, who can hurt us, to be positive and see color and silver linings, to learn from mistakes, to pick ourselves up, to pick up others, to accept help, to ask for help...to hope. The ultimate message I offer is hope, and my ultimate lesson is to lean into God’s supporting grace because we never have to go through life alone.
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