Apart
There has been nothing but problems stirring around the Mexico / United States border. Thousands of children are separated from their families, and only some are lucky enough to be reunited. This sculpture shows how close you can be to your loved ones, yet still so far.
Inspiration
My sculpture was inspired by Ronald Rael, creator of the seasaws that were placed across the Mexican-American border. Mr.Rael hoped the design would help people reassess the effectiveness of borders and encourage dialogue rather than division. “I think it’s become increasingly clear with the recent events in our country that we don’t need to build walls we need to build bridges.” The Installation of these seasaws created a sense togetherness even when being “worlds” apart and that is what I wanted to portray in this sculpture.
Planning
In the beginning of creating this sculpture, my initial idea was to create something fun and cute. We had casted objects out of aluminum and I choose to cast Cubone. Cubone is a known character from the popular tv show / video called Pokemon. Cubone’s back story is actually quite sad, he loses his mother at a young age and out of remembrance he takes his mothers skull and wears it now and forever on his head. My initial idea was to create my concept around the love a mother has for her children but after some thought I wanted to reach more of an audience and create awareness. As a Mexican-American Women it hurts me to see all these families getting separated at the border, but when there is sadness, light will always come forth.
