Artist Statement
James Melville Corey
February 2024

​

I am a leather mask maker from Seattle who has made over 1400 masks since March 2019. The mask making process every day allows me to turn my anxiety, fear, and self-doubt daily into something true, beautiful, and good.

​

This practice emerged out of a confluence of events in 2018: A Commedia dell’Arte mask making workshop in Florence, my entry into Jungian psychotherapy, and a necessity to take my hypomania, or extra energy, and channel it into a creative outlet.

​

In Jungian psychotherapy I learned about the ego, the mask we show others. I learned about the shadow, that which we hide from others. I experienced the process of holding my shadow up into the light of personal reflection and witnessing it. These masks are a physical manifestation of my individuation.

​

James Melville Corey

 

Jamescoreyart.com

Instagram: jamescoreyartdotcom