Artist Statement

Carrying the World

Bella Foley

Atlas, bound by Zeus, was forever cursed to bear the brunt of the world on his back. A mess of scrawled black, blue, and red water-blurred messages make up his form. He hefts a world full of chaos; hate and beauty intertwined, blossoming and cocooning itself. It is made mostly by a patchwork of newspaper clippings, cut-out coloring books, a hint of hand drawn mayhem and some magazine cutouts. I mod-podged it together, coloring it lightly with washed out acrylics and watercolors, doing touch ups with water-based markers. The background is simply black and white acrylics.

To carry the world; to pick up everything, handle everything, all at once and on your own. Could you do that? Well I've seen so many carrying- if not the world- so much baggage and weight. They wear it on their faces, in their moods, in the tension in the air. But in truth, you could never carry the world completely by yourself, you are not Atlas and you will never be. The world’s weight shifts so those around you carry it too. Maybe not at first, but over time it gets to you, your shoulders hunch and they can see it. They can feel it. My right from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to have time to rest and take a break from the busy world. Paid holidays, reasonable working hours, and a chance to put down the world for a minute.

Though in truth that is less of the topic than the fact that people bury themselves so much. People have a hard time keeping a healthy work life balance, or try to persist in something that doesn't make them happy. Some surveys have shown 89% of workers have had symptoms of burnout. 

My only hope in creating this is that people realize they can put down the world. To take a small step back to actually see it, the beauty and not just the hate that it bears. Though important, though needed, your life should never be all work. Your life should not be so weighted so that you feel like the world is on your shoulders.