Psychic Self-Defense <br/> Jean Sandoval
The body will tense up and react in visceral ways against the stresses of modern, contemporary living. Overwhelmed and stormy, the mind does something funny when it gets to a certain boiling point. If you are like me, unmedicated and too stubborn to perish from the burnout, then before that implosion reaches its zenith, your imagination is struck upon like a match and you are surrendered to quick, fleeting visions that the psychiatrist you found through TikTok calls “intrusive thoughts.” Through sculpture and painting I would like to capture those visions. To explore the universes reflected in our reality’s absurdities.
The rising, exponential curve of convenience for shopping, for buying, for thinking but no time for the self. Only dysmorphia. Only petty small instances of gratification through consumption. If you decide not to be tempted by the physical gluttony of “stuff,” you are instead bombarded by its digital counterparts. Self-comparisons, self-advertising but not self-preservation.
Politics is a drug you can and want to ingest until your overdose makes you the most insufferable person at work. No one likes a suburban anarchist.
History doesn’t repeat itself and it doesn’t rhyme, instead it vomits a new meal, eating it from the floor then throwing it up again. Each chunk, a scene, unrecognizable on its surface but the taste is familiar, bitter reminders that taste quirky and violent. At least vomit has its comedic value. Philosophy and religion have created only stories that you can escape to, lore-pilled and ready to embrace dissociation. You see in your mind’s eye a door. Here that door is always open. Something to traverse through as your mind begins to build its final, psychic self-defense.
Born in Mexico but raised in Texas, Jean Sandoval is an artist based in Houston. Their work explores an internal world reflected through painting and sculpture. Their style comes from studying modernist painters, history, and film. They work towards creating their own universe and mythos while reflecting on the absurdities of modern living. They have a BFA in painting from the University of Houston and a current member of BOX 13 Artspace.
Website: www.sandoval-painting.com
Instagram: @jean.e.sandoval