Holli Garrido Julie D.

Hicks 9 April 2012 Response 8 Embrace the Harvest Doesnt make a whole lot of sense, and at first, neither did a lot of the large wooden sculptures that made up Andrew Fullwoods Instinct exhibit. With a name that fits his profession, Fullwood has fashioned beautifully carved statues of everything from a womans figure to a life size crawfish. Personally I have never understood how people pull off the art of sculpting, as a child whose three week dream was to carve, and given the softest wood and the simplest tools and I still could not make a smooth cut. Such beautiful objects and so large and well done, it is truly astounding to behold. Among the room are a few pieces that go in some sort of order, making up the stages of giving birth and while this grabs your attention at first once I realized they were a series I went searching for something more unique; something that stood on its own so that maybe its message would be more powerful. I found that powerful piece of art in Fullwoods Embrace sculpture, which is exactly what it sounds like. Accompanied by his quote We cannot begin to hold all that we want from another, but our embrace suggests we believe otherwise. What is the shape of the instinct to be held? A hard hitting quote like that only strengthened the meaning the sculpture had for me. While this was only his second carving, he had created a man and a woman, both smooth and beautifully crafted, so detailed you would hardly know it was once rough, jagged wood. It is so

lifelike its like looking at real people, locked in an embrace. Both of their heads are hidden in their partners neck, arms grasping hold of one another as if those arms are all they have to keep them united. The man is on his knees, leaning back slightly to support the weight of the woman who seems to have leapt into his arms; her feet rested on his thighs, totally disconnected from the ground, the earth, and everything else that is not her man. His strong grip makes it clear that he is not going to let her fall. Falling in love, a topic that artists from every generation try and grasp, because it is so hard to pinpoint exactly what this feels like. Their attempts have left us with some of the most beautiful pieces of art, but still no concrete description of this human experience. We feel overwhelmed because there is no way to describe all that you like and desire about a person; no tangible way to hold all those traits and feelings and keep them close. An embrace, a hug, is the closest means of wrapping those emotions in your arms and holding them tight. Whether it is a hug between friends, lovers, family members, or a kind stranger, nothing is quite like the embrace of another human being. As someone who has experience abandonment and death, both different people and both in one week, I really wish I had given more hugs. Im kicking myself because I never told her how happy she made me every day and how grateful I was to have met her. On the other hand Im angry with him, for holding me like it meant something, when it was false feelings all along and I just didnt know it. He has left me feeling so scared, like every hug I will receive is going to be a lie, and if Im not careful Ill fall for it all over again. Funny how quickly your opinions of someone change, it is much faster then I will ever understand. With something as special as am embrace, it makes me sad and angry to think that people would take it so lightly, if only they knew how much was communicated between two pairs of arms.

Culturally speaking, I dont think people understand this importance either. Too many people take it for granted, and too many shared experiences are shrugged off in favor of something else. Usually selfish things that have no real weight to them, but what does this action do to our mindsets over time? Lack of human contact is damaging, this has been seen in small children that are neglected, and even to the extreme cases where children are isolated to the point that they fail to develop into functioning human beings. We are not designed as solitary beings, we need interaction and kindness and the embrace of our loved ones to keep us going from day to day. Real life, face to face interaction, the type of this that is becoming rare with each new iPhone app and video game released on the market. How long will it take for this culture to realize what it is doing cant be undone as easily. The second piece that I stopped to evaluate was a sculpture called Harvest, and while the piece itself is not what drew me in, the quote that went with it stuck with me and gave me a whole new way of looking at this work. Sometimes I think of this piece as a cross-section of curiosity. I always want to know whats inside. This curved shape is bigger around than my waist, made from a single piece of maple, and upon closer inspection looks like a pair of simplified, curved hands on each end, holding an assortment of different sized spheres, ranging from small to large as you move from left to right, inside its rounded arms. Perhaps these arent arms at all but some single being made up of multiple parts and without the spheres, could this thing survive? Perhaps what this piece, and the quote, is hinting at is that nothing can survive without all of the necessary insides. Take out one factor of life and the entirety of it will fail. The sculpture is a light, honey colored wood with dark brown lines that flow and ripple in delightfully uneven patterns. The inner pieces only slightly darker overall than the outer, and all a part of what was once a single slice of maple.

What aspects make up a mind, what makes up a single person? That constant curiosity had by me and countless others is always asking what makes up a thing. Whats even crazier to think about is that this wondering about what makes the mind, is generated by our mind itself, leaving us in this endless cycle of curiosity that may or may not ever be satisfied. What we do know is that every little piece is vital for us to function, and without each factor we could not live. Like each little sphere of the harvest held in the maples curved arms, take away any one of those spheres and perhaps the thing will cease to exist, or at least survive well. Art like this makes me revisit it question of what is vital to our existence, and how does our mind govern all of this to the point of success. It is no mystery that the sum of the parts is greater than the whole, but what happens to the parts if they are removed? The questions of an aspiring psychologist will never completely be satisfied. Ask anyone at or above high school age, and they will tell you that many important societal systems exist in the US and all around the world today. Take out the spheres, the pieces, any of the systems that fit together to create a society, and suddenly it cant function. Whether its the thoughts that make up an individual, and so many individuals make up a family, which in turn make a community, and those communities make a nation, combine all the nations and you have the globe. This is not a new idea, but in simple terms it shows that each and every one is vital, everyone is necessary and important in some way to some person. If our culture can remember this layout, perhaps we would appreciate the people around us more. It makes no difference if you interact or even know them, but understand and therefore respect everyone around you. No matter who you are, you have worth, and we have all been harvested together to make something beautiful.