Between Promise
and Execution
Between Promise and Execution was a retrospective of several series of my work, each of which uses various materials and techniques. Various dimensions, from 8–42”tall and includes free-standing and wall-mounted work.
All work was created from 2019—2022.
I’m an artist now, but I was a software developer for decades. There is a concept in Javascript coding that's called a “promise.” It’s a bit of code that waits for a specific thing to happen, and when that thing happens, the promise analyzes how it happened and makes a decision about what to do next. The action the promise takes is called an “execution.” An execution might carry the process on to the next step—where a different promise and execution connection gets made—or an execution might halt the current process so that something new can begin.
For me, that’s a lot like life. Things happen and somebody decides what to do about it. Sometimes I got to decide what to do, but other times decisions were made for me, and they weren’t ones I wanted.
The pieces in Between Promise and Execution are a record of both kinds of decisions—the ones I got to make and the ones other people made without my input. Realizing that I wasn't always going to get to enact a promise, but would always have the ability and the right to execute work as a reaction to other people's decisions is how and why I became an artist.
Photos by Summer Raine YoungThis series are made of rusted paper or naturally dyed and inked raw silk that reference women’s skirts from past centuries. These forms recall the era when the only freedom allowed for many women was to walk out in nature during breaks from housework and other social duties. The long and voluminous skirts women were required to wear were impractical for hiking, quickly becoming dew-sodden or muddy. Classic literature and modern movies have created scenes where women are scolded or scorned for daring to be seen wearing the clothes they sullied while exercising their small freedoms.
The Walking Skirts invite you to celebrate the beauty in the stains and grime that can come with exercising your freedoms.
Walking Skirts
Walking Skirt #1. Walnut-stained raw silk, rusted wire, found wood
Walking Skirt #2. rusted paper, with penned topographic lines, found wood, wrapped and embroidered jewelry
Walking Skirt #3. rusted paper, with penned topographic lines, found wood, wrapped and embroidered jewelry
I created the Surface Tension series as the world was starting to think about how a global pandemic would change our world. I craved simplicity and was also thinking about transformation. So I shaped some emotionally-laden household items into rounded forms and swaddled them with scrap yarn to obscure or comment on their identity. I added an outer layer of embroidery, choosing a stitch that refers to or comments on each item. With their new coverings, objects that used to weigh me down now make me smile.
Surface Tension
Bike Shorts: the pair I was wearing when I got knocked off my bike
Itchy Orange Tank Top: at once too big and too small
Underwire Bra: we are never getting back together, like ever.
Tool: the only one from his toolbox that my father would teach me to use; left in a wheelbarrow, under a bag of potting soil, by accident