Where do you keep your thoughts and anxieties?

There is this idea that thoughts are fragile and fleeting. Anxiety is perceived similarly. In reality, anxiety has more of a physical permanence. It becomes a fixture in life, a burden or a blessing.

In 2019, I was creating paper cranes with my high school students like I did every semester in Intro to 3D Art. During my planning period, I had a habit of writing to do lists, thoughts and ideas on Post-It notes so that I had somewhere for them to live while I was working on other things. On one of the harder days in my classroom, I wrote down how I was feeling and then folded it into a paper crane. It was meditative. The repetitive act of folding a paper crane gave me enough time to observe my feelings without too much judgment. Later, I decided I wanted to create cranes as a three dimensional journal. Different color cranes for different emotions and thoughts.

At the same time I was experimenting with creating clay origami cranes. The process was very fragile and after a few versions I was able to create clay cranes that stayed together. The COVID-19 pandemic halted the making of the clay cranes as it did many other things in my life. I continued to make paper cranes, but dove into making the three dimensional journal. In the fall of 2021, I created an installation of the paper crane thoughts and the clay cranes. When I displayed it at Storage Space Gallery that year, I collected thoughts from guests so that I could create cranes later. I allowed people to choose the color of paper that they wanted without the color coding that I had previously used. I wanted them to pick what they were drawn to. The thoughts gifted to me ranged from silly to contemplative. 

The project is continuing to change and evolve. In 2022, I displayed "A Crane for Your Thoughts" again. My thought mobile was displayed alongside the thoughts of the 2021 participants. I am inviting people to leave thoughts, however, these thoughts will be transformed into clay cranes, becoming a bit more permanent than the paper ones. Through the process of creating the clay cranes, the paper will burn away and with it the thoughts that people have left. It is an invitation to leave a thought that will be burned, but presence of it will remain in clay.

Closeup of "A Crane for Your Thoughts II", 2022

A Crane for Your Thoughts, 2021

A Crane for Your Thoughts II, 2022

Video shows Kalie folding cranes that were left during "A Crane for Your Thoughts II".