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Detail from Daniela Edburg’s Uprooted 2019, Photographic prints, sculpture (alpaca wool), at the Orlando Museum of Art’s Exhibit, “Don’t Ask Me Where I am From”.
“Don’t Ask Me Where I’m From”, the newest exhibit at the Orlando Museum of Art, is comprised of works by second generation immigrants whose work examines their identity through the culture of the generation before and their guardians’ chosen new home. The thought of what is my identity is often the subject for many artists. Surely even if it is not that specifically addressed as it is in this exhibit, an artist’s identity cannot be denied.
I never intended to create work that was about my identity. I utilized objects and buildings to inspire abstracted imagery focused on the formal principals of art. Now when look at each piece they invoke the feelings I had at the time they were created. Even though it was not about my identity, they were after all, biographical.
Becoming a designer was different. Although a creative endeavor, the goal is about the other, not the self. That other could be a mass audience, as it is in marketing to a larger population, or it can be about branding an individual or company, but it is not about the self. The designer is a kind of empath, utilizing data along with intuition to come to design conclusions. The transition from professional fine artist to designer came easily to me. The transition to flipping homes took a little experience.
My first experience was working with a mentor who allowed me to make some of own design decisions. It took a few responses of “that does not work”, and suggesting something else, to realize he had a formula. It was a formula based on experience. He knew how much personality was required to connect with a larger audience allowing optimum purchase offers. Similarly, I worked with a person who stages the home for sale with furniture vignettes to give that warm homey feeling without taking on a specific personality.
Selling your home is an emotional experience, much like an artist who displays their cultural journey. It is where you lived, loved, cried, laughed, and seeing it stripped of the personality that you brought to it for so many years is very difficult. My neighbor and professional stager says you have to realize that when you sell, you are selling a product. That product is not your life, it is a product that someone else will make their own. When all is said and done, you will move into your next home, another product, and fill it with even more of your life’s journey, where you are the artist.
