Teralyn Brown

 Comfort Zones

The process of change requires relinquishing something once considered familiar or comfortable, be it a belief or an object, in order to move forward. Taking frequent walks in my daily life, I have become more aware of the rotation of furniture that can be found on roadsides. Seeing comfortable living chairs in uncomfortable situations felt similar to my feelings of being stuck in one place during uncertain times. As they sit at the side of the road, they are suspended in a limbo caused by a change occurring: People moving, families altering, lifestyles shifting. As these comfort objects await their fate, I imagine the life they’ve lived before and admire the comfort they may have brought to many. I use my work to reflect on this shared humanity of messiness and to encourage the uncomfortable embrace of impermanence within myself and others. To be outside of our comfort zones and feeling slightly out of place is to face a new world of exciting, but overwhelming potential. I depict these objects as etchings to grant an air of security, but not ensure it. The printing plates are copper making them malleable and the print counts finite. So while their physicality must reach an end, their memory will be honored in feeling. Wrapped in each object, there’s an entire life that one can only imagine based on the nuance in how it is placed in the discard pile; The level of care within their candid compositions speaks volumes of how it was regarded by its previous owner(s). The patterns and colors of upholstery express eccentricities and utility as do the broken or worn points. Each object exudes character to the point of being personified. In spending so much time rendering these objects, they grow in sentimentality and feel difficult to let go of. Whether they’ll be picked up by a new owner for a new life or discarded in a landfill, there’s no way to know for sure.