Jablonsky, Sally2024-07-262024-07-262024https://hdl.handle.net/10177/40376Through oil painting, clay sculpture, and a self published magazine, I explore the experience of being a body and an animal on the Earth. I use the body as a source of information to reveal the human fantasy while at the same time creating a new framework to live within–one that shows the human experience in the greater context of the natural world. My work explores: the experience of time and being a body relating to disability, what it is to be a human animal, art making as tool use, aesthetics and care as resistance, and nature as the appropriate context for chronically ill people’s (and maybe everyone’s) experiences. I am interested in undoing hierarchical values assigned to species and in looking to nature, not as a metaphor, but as a place to find commonality among the living beings of this planet. By allowing myself to move between a range of styles within the paintings, I show a respect for a number of things: the physical, the pleasure of looking and of making, and the importance of questioning aesthetics as an essential part of resistance and survival. As it is a part of the fantasy of ableism, I throw away mastery, and instead am guided by the pure fun of making as well as a questioning of my own aesthetic tendencies. Imagery in paintings (a shadow person resting on a floral couch, a tree at night, a doctors' visit, a waterfall scene, and a cat person) come from experiences I've had that have given me a certain kind of awareness of my body–a new perception and relationship involving care and maintenance, physical feeling, and mental picture of who and what I am. I invite viewers to unlearn that we are separate from nature, and to witness a journey through the kingdom of the sick.oil on canvas, paper clay, magazineAll rights reserved.body, embodiment, animal, painting, disability, crip time, mutualism, aesthetics, fun, susan sontag, tool use, environmentalism, care as resistance,