Sabrina Ward Harrison, Artist

I discovered the website of the woman who wrote Spilling Open: The Art of Becoming Yourself. The book is a multimedia journal that captures and records the life of a young woman and artist. The text from the book is intended to be experienced with the art.

Introduction

The great American poet Walt Whitman said that there is a time we must "wash the gum from our eyes and dress ourselves for the dazzle of the light." He looked at men and women struggling with their lives and said, "Long have you timidly waded holding a plank by the shore, now I will you to be a bold swimmer, to jump off into the midst of the sea, rise again, not to me, shout! and laughingly dash with your hair."

I'm feeling rather disheveled and crooked (I seem to be seeping out at the edges). I am Sabrina Ward Harrison. I am twenty-one. This is my book. I often feel an overwhelming pressure to "have it all together." What is "it"? I feel young. I am young.

Childrens book artist and author Maurice Sendak described his creative process as a "descent into limbo." This describes my entire life lately. The more I look around and listen I realize that I'm not alone. We are all facing choices that define us. No choice. However messy is without importance in the overall picture of our lives. We all at our own age have to claim something, even if it's only our own confusion. I am in the middle of growing up and into myself.

This book is my life in progress. A growing expedition through the tangled and unfilled-in parts of understanding my life, my truth and myself.

I want to share it.

Welcome inside.