Balance
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"Life is like riding a bicycle.
In order to keep your balance you must keep moving." Albert Einstein |
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Dimensions: 20”w x 50”h x 20”d Materials: Boxes clad in Copaxone labels, cardboard bottle packaging grids, Copaxone and Saline Solution bottles and bottle components, fishing line and a spinning motor. My second piece, a mobile, made from pieces and parts of the recycled Copaxone and Saline Solution bottles and parts of the boxes they came in, tethered together with fishing line. All pieces and parts are delicately balanced to enable the fluid movement. It is a constant struggle to find balance in my body and my life as the MS affects my strength, stability and energy. “At times I feel like I am teetering on an unstable edge, but I still find my balance.” |
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Bottle TOPS
Dimensions: 19”w x 13”h x 4 ½”d Materials: Plastic medication and supplement bottle tops, acrylic, LED puck lights Over the years I have taken numerous medications and supplements to manage my symptoms. I have created a stockpile of bottles in different colors, shapes, and sizes. As my MS progresses, I continue to strive for control over something. In this case it was the bottles. As I arranged the dark green and bright orange bottle tops of various sizes in a pattern, on a translucent acrylic, lit box, the tops took on a life of their own, truncated, and juxtaposed next to one another. “As I navigate the ups and downs of my ever-changing body, I continue to look at things from different perspectives to find joy and light.” |
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Chaos |
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Dimensions: 14”w x 14”h x 12”d (15”w x 50”h x 15”d with pedestal)
Materials: Copaxone and Saline Solution bottles suspended in clear polyester resin.
This is a bookend to the "Order (1,2, & 3)" Series. Having had MS for over 24 years,
I now know that there are many aspects of my body I can't control and my day-to-day
symptoms can be chaotic.
Instead of becoming depressed and withdrawn, I use my art to manipulate the chaos.
The bottles are “chaotically” tossed around without any rhyme or reason like my
symptomatic exacerbations. The two 9” x 9” resin planes are embedded in an uneven resin base,
further symbolizing the lack of control and stability of the course of my MS.
Fluid Treatment
Artist/Reacher Exhibit Researcher: Leslie Tarlow, NP Artist: Susan Trachman Dimensions: 34”W x 12 ½”H x 8 ½”D Materials: Saline solution bottles (from Copaxone treatment), filled with brightly colored liquid, mounted on clear Plexiglas shelves, encased in a mirror plexiglass box. Description: My interpretation of Leslie Tarlow’s work at the USC Multiple Sclerosis Comprehensive Care Center, wherein she guides patients through their individualized treatment regimen, utilizing my saline bottles from my Copaxone treatment, and injecting my journey with MS into the piece The bottles are filled with brightly colored liquid, arranged in two “S” curves one on top of the other. The color and the quantity of the liquid in each bottle represent the various types and amounts of treatment utilized by each patient. The shape of the two “S” curves and the order in which the liquid filled bottles are arranged is unique as is each person’s experience with the disease. The options within each service/treatment area are numerous and can be overwhelming. Ms. Tarlow and the USC Comprehensive Care Team evaluate each patient’s diagnosis and symptoms, discussing the choices with each patient to provide the best available approach. Like the “S” curves, treatment is fluid and continues to evolve as does each patient’s’ journey with MS. |
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Sharpes (Java Chip), 2013
Dimensions: 132”w x 32”h x 4 ¼ ”d
Materials: 120 Sharps Containers (used for the disposal of needles and syringes) hung on 9 steel rods.
The sculpture utilizes a commonly seen object in doctor’s offices and hospitals, the Sharps Container
used for the disposal of syringes. The 120 Sharps Containers are configured in nine repetitive segments
representing the number of containers used for the by-product of my daily injections of medication,
day after day, over 12 years.
12 years, 624 weeks, 4,380 nightly shots of Copaxone
Note: If curious, I called this piece Java Chip because my reward after my shot was a bowl of
Java chip ice cream…something to look forward too!
Sharpes Sculpture Re-configured for HEAL Exhibit at USC Hoyt Gallery
Kaleidoscope
Dimensions: 40”w x 70”h x 40”d
Materials: Plexiglass, pill boxes, LED lights and photographic
kaleidoscope images of pills on Plexiglass
The Kaleidoscope Mobile Sculpture, continues the theme of how I try to live my life; be positive, create and grow.
The dangling images were created utilizing computer technology to generate bright and colorful kaleidoscopic
images of one of my daily tools, pill boxes, filled with pills, capsules and liquid gels. The eighteen little missiles,
which I take in three daily increments, morning, noon and night, are an annoyance for sure, but they also assist
in my treatment by targeting my various symptoms.
In this piece, the pill boxes serve as the fertile ground in which the sculptural tree is sustained, and in creating
the environment where the light can shine through. The beauty of the dangling mobile of pill shaped objects
represent my intent to see through the frustration and discomfort of my MS and thrive in my constantly
changing and unpredictable life with this illness.
“In the end, what matters most is how I choose to look at things, both in the course of my illness and my life as a whole.”
