DANIEL ANGELES

ARTIST STATEMENT

(Horizon - The limit of a person's mental perception, experience, or interest.)

In life, one thing I’ve learned is that we are all forced to face unexpected/undesirable situations. Often times, the experiences can weigh heavy on us and load us down, making us question our ability or strength to get through to the other side.

Over the last year, my husband and I have truly been tested with this type of mental barricade. Situations that were out of our control changed the very course of our lives and all we had planned for our future. Initially, I could only see the trials and tribulations before us including everything that was lost, the hard work that it would take to recover and the frustration of feeling helpless over all of it. The word overwhelming was an understatement. However, as monumental as those hard times were, we did the only thing we knew to do. We kept pushing forward and fighting to retrieve what was taken from us. It was a choice we had to make, to look beyond what laid directly in front of us, blocking our path, to search and accept the new course that life provided us. We did that by putting our sights on the horizon. To empower us with hope by working toward a future that we knew will be as wonderful, if not greater than the one we had originally planned for. Best of all we have discovered through all of this, that together, we can face anything that is thrown at us. We WILL prevail and are anxious to discover what awaits us, BEYOND the horizon.

This entire exhibition depicts many of the experiences and emotions that my husband and I have been through on this journey and my hope is that the horizontal (horizon) lines in some of the pieces, serve as a reminder to the viewer that there is always hope. No matter how great the ordeal, each of us embodies the strength to get through. I hope the messages will inspire others to search for the alternate paths that life may set before them, rather than being stuck at the crossroad. We must keep moving forward because there’s always beauty to find on the other side of the struggle.

When the time comes that you are ready to look back on your journey, commemorate your strength, will and accomplishments. They will fill you with the wisdom you’ll need to face the next obstacle.