LOST SOULS is an introspective creative project meant to help us connect deeper with the people around us, because we can see ourselves within them. The souls are represented by an abstract human-inspired figure, that represents a fluid, evolving sense of self.
Living in a city, it's those random interactions you have with strangers that change everything... having a laugh with someone at the bar, helping someone pick up their groceries that fell out of the bag and into the street, watching someone run fter the bus and everyone flag down the driver to stop.
Society has created a lot of labels that can make us feel disconnected with people who identify differently, instead of assimilated. I wanted the figure to be universal - something that everyone could look at and see themselves. There's no gender, race, or body type associated with the symbol. It's just the essence of being that is within all our souls.
The creativity behind LOST SOULS has taken many forms - paintings, graffiti, drawing over photographs, 'that one doodle that ends up on everything'. My most recent revelation has been using a mirror, to encourage the audience to see themselves as a soul.
Throughout this creative process, I also begun taking photos of people, and drawing souls over them. This process has grounded the project by using real photographs to show the concept of souls. Here's a photo I took at MoMA in July of people interacting with a large installation.
Paintings of the LOST SOULS are more abstract scenes that portray moments or emotions we've all faced. "SOULS ON A BALCONY" was inspired by the Mac Miller song, "Thoughts from a Balcony". There's a lyric in the chorus, "all we got is memories, so what the f*ck is time?" that really stuck with me. It's the people around us that mean the most, but often we are stuck worrying about first world problems like time.
This series has evolved so much over the past few months, and I'm excited to see the new forms it will take. I want to continue doing out of home installations, and getting people to interact more with the souls in their environment. LOST SOULS is for everyone.