The Light Between Things
artist statement:
Our every day, as well as the everydayness of our experience, is under the influence of our perceptions and judgments of what reality is. As a young child I believed that waking reality was not real at all, but a dream to awaken from. This was a belief I could not easily shake as I grew older. The beliefs we cling to, effect the way we see the world, and distortions viewed from one person’s perspective are reality to another. Insomnia, dreaming, and the beliefs in-between them – are explored in this lyrical, meditative essay.
I took many photographs at night to practice with a new camera, and to my surprise these became the images I wanted for the video. I discovered that images shot with varying high resolutions could express the way realness is sometimes not very crisp, but rather dreamy. Sounds of nature are heard in the background, both grounding and meditative, they serve as representatives of portals to other ways of experiencing.
While writing the text, I had ideas about what ambient noise and images I wanted for the video, but they didn’t make meaning for me until I trusted my instinct and just starting weaving them together. As in a dream, I felt carried on a tide of nonsensical choices and happenings. The trust in my creative instinct was the greatest reward in the making of The Light Between Things.
artist bio:
Catherine Alice Michaelis is an artist living by the Salish Sea near Olympia, Washington, and she is a junior at The Evergreen State College. She has been writing and creating artist’s books and fine press editions under the imprint of May Day Press for over 20 years. Her published work has been cited in numerous publications, collected in over 50 public institutions, and has won several awards.
Catherine has returned to college to study creative writing, media arts, and cultural anthropology. She has journeyed from the 15th century world of letterpress to the 21st century of media arts in a few months. She is the recipient of the 2011/12 Evergreen Foundation Scholarship and the 2012/13 Non-Sequitor Scholarship.
Upon graduation, Catherine plans to continue her artistic and cultural pursuits.