The Geography of Hope
by Jocelyn Mathewes
My current work is a growing body of alternative processes and conceptual experiments in mixed media. My interest lies in how the day-to-day experience and psyche of the patient is shaped and affected. These pieces explore the effects of chronic illness, medical procedures, and ongoing treatment. A variety of mediums intermingle in much the way that medication, physical symptoms, and mental health do. I confront the systems of healing on offer by expressing and exploring the emotional and spiritual effects of my own illness and medical treatments.
For this series, The Geography of Hope, I collaged medical detritus, prescription sheets, discarded cyanotype prints, and old road maps into a landscape of illness—psychological, temporal, emotional. It's full of its own beauty but made up of scraps of things, of hope mingled with pain and getting up over and over again. This work is a description of a particular experience with illness and a particular philosophy of illness—that I must navigate these things, that I move through whatever difficulty or anguish I suffer, and that I am working to make them transform me for the better.
Jocelyn Mathewes is a mixed-media interdisciplinary artist living with her family in rural Appalachia in East Tennessee, and has exhibited work all over the United States and beyond. She curates exhibits and regularly hosts a pop-up gallery out of her dining room, EAT/ART space. Find more of her work on her website at www.jocelynmathewes.com or via @jocelynmathewes on social media.
