My work is a combination of paintings and sculptures that wrestle with the idea of existence as inheritance and the interconnectedness of people.

Esther Gray
*Iteration*
wire, fabric
34" x 42"

Much of the work was made through a responsive process, and few of the pieces began withblank white canvases, which related to the way that I view reality—we never begin with a blankslate; our very beings bear the scars and beauties of people of our past. Some of the pieces deal with the loss of a loved one, while others wrestle with responses to history and shared stories.

Esther Gray
*Saturn 1: Call*
fabric
20" x 15.5" x 1"

Some pieces express the divine involvement in the life of all human beings, and others respond to the way that man-made objects interact with our environments. Overall, the pieces express the interconnectedness which shapes us and our world—without it, we are nothing. It is also a response to the kind of individualism which considers humans to be independent of one another and self-sufficient and reliant, which I reject for the most part.

Esther Gray
*Attached or This Present Absence*
fabric
66" x 10"

It felt only right to use second-hand fabrics and canvases to allude to the hand-me-down world we live in. Much of my work also is inspired by nature and organic forms as it portrays a natural flow and river of life which characterizes all humanity as a kind of living organism. My faith as a Christian also greatly shapes my work and how I respond to what I have inherited.

Esther Gray
*Repeated Longing*
fabric
23.5" x 23.5" x 1.75"

We are anything but independent creatures or self-reliant. We are the inheritance of others, and others will be our inheritance. All we inherit from others, their stories, possessions, bodies, and ultimately existence, is experienced as gift and curse. We must wrestle with what we have been given and in turn wrestle with what we must give to others.

See Inheritance in the Hank & Dolly’s gallery throughout the month of July.