Ramble On 2025

Wood, Iron, Twine, and Fish Tank

Grief can feel like drowning in an overwhelming tide that pulls you under until breath becomes nothing but a memory. Ramble On is a physical display of the struggle between choosing to live or succumbing to the weight of death. It reflects the moment when grief became so consuming that I no longer wanted to go on, and the moment I chose to fight my way to the surface and take a breath of life.

This sculpture features an iron-poured skull, darkened with a heat and black tea patina. It rests at the bottom of a 20-gallon hexagonal fish tank on a bed of blue and purple pebbles. A carved wooden face is bound to it, submerged and tied by strings. It has an expression frozen in the act of drowning. The skull symbolizes death as it is heavy, cold, and unrelenting. The wooden mask represents life caught beneath the waves, held under by the pull of sorrow and suicidal ideation.

The audience must intervene and is invited to untie the ropes holding down the wooden mask, allowing it to rise to the surface and breathe. This act of release mirrors my own experience of being pulled so close to death by the loss of my sister, I had to make the impossible decision to live. I chose life, not because it was easier, but because I couldn’t bring myself to deepen the wounds already left on my family. I fought to rise for them, and eventually, for me.

The title, Ramble On, is taken from the Led Zeppelin song that became my personal anthem during this time. Though its original meaning differs, the phrase reminded me to keep moving forward, to romanticize existence, and to endure. It gave me a reason to breathe again.

This is the first piece in which I openly depict the reality of suicidal thoughts. It is a vulnerable offering and an invitation for viewers to witness and participate in the struggle to choose life. Ramble On explores the strength it takes to rise when death pulls us down, and the deep, often painful reasons we find to keep going.