Softwired

Katie M.

Color Pencil, Yarn

• Artist Statement

  This piece reimagines a childhood bear as a symbol of overconsumption in a tech-driven world. By opening the bear and revealing small toys inside, I wanted to show how objects are stuffed with playful distractions that create a quiet sense of overload. The artificial neon palette echoes the glow of screens and sets up a clear juxtaposition between softness and manufactured intensity. The unplugged cord suggests both dependence and depletion, hinting at a creature shaped by the systems that animate it yet left powerless without them. While making this work, I layered gentle textures with saturated colors to heighten the tension between natural and synthetic forms. I hope viewers feel the bear’s initial charm before sensing the uneasiness beneath it. The piece reflects on how consumer culture fills and shapes us through objects meant to comfort and entertain.

• Creative Statement

  To me, creativity is the moment something familiar becomes unfamiliar again. It is noticing possibilities hiding in ordinary materials and letting curiosity rearrange them into new meaning. Creativity lives in experimentation, in small risks, and in trusting an idea before you know where it will lead.