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Our Obsessions: How Do They Affect Our Children?
Assemblage
As an artist, I use the medium, assemblage, as a voice to better understand our human condition. Loving objects that are aged and reflect history, the artifacts I collect often wait years before finding their place. These antique and commonplace objects, utilized figuratively and symbolically in small-scale assemblages, allow me the opportunity to look within and beyond myself for inspiration and common emotions. Enjoying the challenge of rearranging reality, altering perceptions, and integrating the past with the present, I'm influenced by the surrealists, Joseph Cornell and family.
Traditionally mothers have been responsible for child rearing; however, fathers are currently taking a more active role in the lives of their children. The assemblage, "Our Obsessions: How Do They Affect Our Children?", invites us to reflect upon our daily habits; what are we modeling for our children? How do our obsessions with gambling, smoking, eating, cleaning, money and alcohol affect our children physically, emotionally, and spiritually? Unfortunately, since mothers customarily bear the largest responsibility in raising our children, mothers are often blamed for the abuses of obsessive behavior.
-- Carol Hilgemann