The Things We Carry

Description

The Things We Carry
Mixed Media on Canvas • Signed Pamela Robinson

The Things We Carry is a layered, introspective mixed media work that explores the hidden complexities of identity in the digital age. Created during Pamela Robinson’s final semester at the University of St. Francis in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and later exhibited at Kendall College of Art and Design for the incoming graduate student show, this abstract piece investigates the emotional weight we carry behind carefully curated online personas.

The surface is textured with shredded paper—fragments of real Facebook conversations—glued onto a canvas that originally held a painting the artist once deemed unsuccessful. After adhering the paper, Pamela applied new layers of paint directly over it, creating an expressive surface both literal and metaphorical. Bold black linear shapes dominate the composition, set against a muted gray background and accented with striking red forms that pulse beneath the surface like buried emotions.

At once raw and refined, The Things We Carry speaks to themes of erasure, reconstruction, and the vulnerability of self-presentation in a hyperconnected world. A powerful work for collectors of conceptual, abstract, or process-driven art.