Artist's Statement

Joshua David Watson

In the Valley of Dry Bones is an experimental narrative which employs alternative methods of exploring a subject’s psyche. The work utilizes appropriated journal entries, handwritten letters, and crayon sketches that were made in a Los Angeles psychiatric ward, following the author’s loss of a love. The materials have been repurposed and combined with original photographs to construct a hero's journey that is both biographical and a contemporary mythology as it inherits symbolism from cinematic history and the Western canon.

As a mythology constructed from manic materials, In the Valley of Dry Bones aims to bear witness to the dissonance between hope and apparent absurdity, placing yearnings for love and significance alongside a dread of loss and existential futility.