OSTREUM

In the summer of 2020 on Salt Spring Island, I found myself on a beach at dusk holding an oyster shell. With the current events surrounding me, it dawned on me that for most oysters they live their lives attached to something or another oyster forming an oyster bed. In that moment I became so aware of the attachments I had in my own life, and what I was clinging onto. Whether it be the stories I tell myself, the fears I have, or the upbringing I had. Unlike the oyster we as humans can free ourselves from these attachments, the oyster only truly becomes free once pulled away from it’s humble existence where it resides. I think for most of my life I have felt a strong yearning to be “free”. Really not aware of what this free really meant. Upon further introspection, I started understand more about opening myself up to change and further understanding that clinging to something for safety doesn’t mean I am safe and that some beliefs that I may have or carry around with me need to transform. 

The shell of the oyster is their protective container, the muscle that keeps the shell tight is very strong, and only during certain times does it slightly open. For most of my life my own personal walls kept me protected and safe. Only allowing fragments of myself out into the world when I felt safe to do so. This attachment to security was an illusion I created, in reality when closing myself off I was also dimming down my own light and expression.

The oyster filters the marine water cleaning it of pollutants and removing excess nitrogen from waters by incorporating it into their shells and tissue as they grow. As we humans grow and develop we take on many of our experiences and hold onto them, they can shape and define the person we become. I have the power to change and transform these experiences, no longer holding them so tightly but when taking the time to process and understand these burdens I carry I get to change who I am and how I show up in the world.

Ostreum is the latin feminine form of oyster, this series is named that because of the sensual shapes and colours I use in the work. I created these pieces to demonstrate the relationship I have with attachment. Attachments like personal truths, or limiting beliefs I was taught growing up. They are personal and private to me and by inviting the viewer in I wanted to convey this with colour and shape, suggestive to the oyster. The pieces slowly progress revealing more and more of the shape as the series progresses. Colours were carefully selected to represent the oyster and the environment it lives in, while also demonstrating the romanticism of feeling safe in my attachments.