Star Trauth-Artist

Creativity is always with you. It rarely quits and often doesn’t settle down. When you ignore it it throws a fit. My artistic gift is like an unruly toddler.

My process is involved. Manually manipulating a flat textile into anything 3 dimensional is difficult. Manipulating small components by cutting, torching, and hand molding, into soft sculpture requires time, strength, and energy. My process has a further element that they are inspired by experience and often music.

After my diagnosis all I could think of was, malignancies. There were unwelcome masses in my body and I was about to go to war with them.

This was the first turn in my body of work. Pieces went from being about individual experiences or my point of view to tumors. Because my creativity was buzzing at me I just started working. That is not what I do. As a result every piece looked like a growth. It became emotional. It needed to stop. So I stopped.

“That’s what’s amazing about art, you don’t win or lose.”

—Woosung