The inspiration for this piece arose from a short story within “The War Between Heaven and Hell Wallpaper”- a woman realizes that her actions throughout the day directly influence whether the angelic or demonic army make headway in the eternal battle being played out daily on the walls of her bedroom. The woman eventually empathizes with the forces of Hell as they are reduced to occupying a tiny space of wall, facing annihilation at the point of angels’ spears, and begins doing little things each day to help the demons gain ground. Using a pocket watch shell seemed an appropriate fit for the piece, as it evokes the passage of time. Our thoughts, emotions and body are constantly changing, and what we idealized in our youth may be scoffed at or frowned upon with the advent of age, and vice versa. This piece does not advocate for one side or the other, but allows the owner to reflect upon the nature of our actions, and how often our decisions may appear clear to us, but upon closer inspection actually lead to consequences that are farther away from what we intended.

This piece is intended for display only, pocket watch does not close. The magnetized sides allow the needle to rest on one side or the other depending on how you’d like to display the piece. Please do not display near electronic equipment that may be sensitive to magnets!

Carisa Swenson

“The War Between Heaven and Hell Wallpaper” begins with a vision, an unanticipated sight. Larger than that single vision, though, the overarching narrative weaves between different forms of storyline (that which is imagined, dreamed, and remembered) as the author attempts to make sense of the original image. In “Vision Imagination Dream and Memory” I tried to not only to capture Ford’s initial vision of heaven and hell battling in the wallpaper design, but also to lay focus on the creator of that vision, how such creations are a product of a human mind interacting with the world. In that sense, the focus of the painting becomes the author himself, not Ford, but an abstracted “everyman” as the search to make meaning of our world is a universal desire. On top of the acrylic and collage painting sit “magnetic poetry” style words. These suggest not just that words are intrinsic to the stories that Ford creates about his initial image, but also that our many ways of interpreting the world rely mainly on juxtaposition, and how the mind wanders from one idea to the next in a way quite similar to how a poem is put together from pre-printed worded magnets.

Cait Stuff