For Kids
My current body of work explores the liminal spaces between belonging and becoming through a deliberate conversation between materials and meaning. Working primarily on paper with encaustic wax, pencil, charcoal, gouache, and Sumi ink, I create monochromatic drawings that serve as maps of transition. Into these quiet landscapes, I introduce a singular disruption: red thread, hand-sewn through the paper’s surface.
The red thread functions as both connection and puncture, literally piercing the membrane between past and present. Each stitch becomes a question mark, a moment of necessary wounding that allows growth to occur. After mounting these sewn drawings to canvas board, I preserve them beneath layers of encaustic wax—creating permeable boundaries that protect while transforming.
This process mirrors the central inquiry of the work: What part of us must we leave behind to arrive where we’re going? The paper becomes skin, vulnerable and receptive. The red thread carries ancient symbolism of protection and soul connection across cultures, while the encaustic creates a membrane between what was and what is becoming. Together, these materials ask their own questions about preservation, transformation, and the cost of growth.
The monochromatic palette forces attention to the singular red presence—that which we allow to stand out versus what we keep contained. Each piece becomes a meditation on the tension between our instinctual desire to fit in and our individualist need for continual self-evolution.
View the work in progress at: https://www.instagram.com/mariesadraws
