When I read the query for this chapter, I began thinking about my artistic and creative journeying. I love to paint, collage, sculpt, perform, write, speak, assemble, weave, design, sew. I wanted to tell a great story of something I had created and how it had been in response to the Light. But while trying to narrow in on one specific creation, I realized that all of the creative work I do is in response to the Light within.
I realized that all of the creating I do is really about creating connections. My art connects me to the Mystery inside me, and the Mystery beyond me. It also connects me with the Mystery in others. It connects me to the Light, to the color light is reflected in, to materials and textures, to all of creation. Creating connections is what the Light within moves me to do. I connect the materials, myself, the Source, meaning, those who read or view or hear my work.
One thing I love about collage, found object sculpture and assemblage is that I am able to connect disparate and seemingly unconnected objects. I like to find the relationships between different pomades and object, objects that have been found, created, discarded and retrieved. I love to take something that has been discarded or deemed useless or without value and find value, worth and beauty in it. Something in that object resonates with me and that is the first link. Then I connect it to other materials, to meaning, to emotion, to other people. When I speak or perform I feel such a connectedness to those watching and listening.
I find such peace, joy and bliss in the awareness of the interconnectedness that is life, that is reality. I love to see life as constellations in a gallery, all the connections and interconnections. I hope my creative work furthers and honors that interconnectedness by connecting the materials, myself, the Source, and those who read or view or hear my work.
—Mica Coffin