Skip to main content

Mary Bays

Drawing

 

Liminal: The Spaces in Between

Artist Statement:

Liminal means threshold. Similar to the awkwardness of standing in someone’s doorway while you wait to be invited in, a transitional period in one’s life that overstays its welcome creates an awkward and uncomfortable tension. From something as big as graduating college and entering the real world to something small like waiting for the bus, the unsurety of waiting makes us vulnerable to our deepest doubts and fears. When the mind isn’t occupied or lacks anything concrete to focus on, it wanders and can find itself in dark places. A bus stop at night alone on an empty city street, wondering what could be hiding in the darkness of the alley behind you. Your bedroom, somewhere mainly used to sleep to get from one day to another becomes hauntingly timeless as days and nights bleed together when you lay there wide awake. Your home late at night when you should’ve gone to bed long ago, feeling far too quiet and still as there’s nothing there but fictional worlds to occupy your mind, making the real world starts feeling less real than the imaginary ones. These feelings trap you in moments where you cannot imagine an end, making you believe that there’s nothing you can do to escape. These are the best ways I can portray my experiences with anxiety, depression, and dissociation.