The Lost Years: "Boundaries" LE, Hand Painted Resin Sculpture (3 of 6) & Prints

LISTING DETAILS:
"Boundaries"
✦ Limited Edition (only 6 available)
✦ Hand painted, hand-poured/hand-cast resin.
✦ The figurine has been sealed with a light varnish & the bottom is signed, dated &
numbered.
✦ Approx. 1.75" tall// 1.25" wide
✦ Boundaries comes to you the way it came to me: in a medicine bottle.
✦ The previous label has been replaced with a new one, featuring a painted
landscape.
✦ Inside the bottle, is a small pile of dried peppermint leaves, a unique spot for
Boundaries to perch & take it all in.
✦ In addition to the miniature sculpture & bottle enclosure, your one of a kind
piece will ship with a signed 4x6 collectible print featuring Boundaries in their
habitat (as suggested on the bottle label). For anyone who wants to support the
project without the commitment to adopt one of the 6 available Boundaries
sculptures, you may purchase the 4x6 print, on its own, from the drop down
menu below. The price of the print includes a "donation" of support which will
help fund the creation of the ultimate graphic novel, where Awareness and
their friends will be introduced further. As an early "backer" of the project, you
will receive acknowledgement in the first edition printing of my self published
project.
✦ Final images: Awareness & Vulnerability

Boundaries Sculpture + Print Set, 3/6: $125 (ships in about a 10 days + includes book acknowledgement in future when printed) -- price in the drop down/cart will be $125 + $4.00 shipping. It's actually $120 + $9 shipping, but is done this way so people only purchasing a print aren't charged the sculpture rate too.

Print (+ donation) ONLY: $12 (ships in about a week + includes book acknowledgement in future when printed)

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IF you are interested in collecting the ENTIRE series of 6, you may pre-order them at a discount. With each new design release, the number of available pre-orders will likely decrease & the discount will lessen. Please note this project will be ongoing over the course of the year, with new sculptures releasing every other month or so. Vulnerability, Awareness & Boundaries (the 1st, 2nd & 3rd in the series) will ship together within 10 business days of your order. When your first figure shipment goes out, you will also be sent a sneak peek print of the remaining designs to come.

✦ AS OF APRIL 16th, the release date for Boundaries (3/6), the full collection price for ALL 6 Sculptures + Print Sets in the series is: $650 (this includes the insured shipping for figures 1-6) & your first shipment will include Awareness, Vulnerability & Boundaries.

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MORE ABOUT THIS PROJECT:

In early January 2021, I dragged myself to a clinic, convinced I was dying. Turns out I was perfectly healthy... except for the massive panic attack I'd been living through for over a week. I left that appointment with my first prescription for anti-anxiety medication in over a decade. Not too long after that, I had a psychiatrist & a slew of diagnoses. After 40+ years of struggling to fit in and understand myself, I learned/ had confirmed that I am neurodivergent-- an Autistic, and anxious, depressed, obsessive compulsive with PTSD and ADHD. What followed this revelation was a perfect storm of learning to unmask, fighting for self advocacy (& failing to find support), stumbling through ableism and unlearning all the ways I hid myself from myself.

I've wanted to create a graphic novel for nearly 6 years. The narrative shifted often, but the premise was always the same-- a self portrait. Suddenly though, I was in a position where I wasn't sure I even knew what that meant. Who was I actually? Before my diagnoses I barely knew myself and afterwards everything seemed so much clearer... and at the same time, I found myself mourning all the days that came before then. How might my life have been different if I'd been tested sooner, medicated earlier, given answers & support right away? What did I miss out on for no good reason? What about all those lost years?

Over the course of 2021, I saved every single medicine bottle I emptied. My "cocktail" changed often in the beginning, and dosage increased for a while. By the end of the first year I had 44 bottles. I wanted to give them new life, but in a more direct and immediate way. I wanted, in fact, to honor them-- to honor what they'd given me; in some cases what they'd given me back and in others what they'd given me for the first time. This series, The Lost Years mini sculptures, will utilize those bottles and pay homage to my mental health, while also acknowledging my mental illness. This is an ongoing journey & an endless battle; now I am armed.

The series will be comprised of 6 different characters, from which I will make 7 resin casts to hand paint & give new habitats in my old medicine bottles, for a total of 42 mini sculptures. The remaining 2 bottles will be used for two additional characters as "completers" to the collection. Each of the characters also comes directly from the graphic novel I am (slowly) working on in my "free time". And that's where you come in...

My intention is to self publish this book, at least at first. When I get closer to publication time, I will likely launch a kickstarter or something similar. But for now, what I need most is the time to make the art and because time is money, what I REALLY need is the money to make the time to make the art. Running my own business is now, officially, my only source of income having "failed" to win support via accommodation from my previous steady job of nearly 15 years, in the midst of a global pandemic. Ironically, the loss of that job (income loss aside) could be the very catalyst that makes it possible for me to get the time this work will require. But I need to pay my bills and keep the studio lights on in the meantime. This year is also my first year paying my studio rent entirely by myself; my former studio mate struck out on their own late last year and while I am so thrilled to have more space, the double bill has made a big dent.

I will be adding more and more opportunities and ways to support this project as the year goes on (and you can always help via my Patreon membership subscription, or Ko-Fi tip jar tips as well), but if you've made it this far, I thank you for supporting me emotionally as well. I'm really excited to share my story.