Danila Rumold

A Bigger Container

A Bigger Container was born from its materials. After 6 months of saving eggshells, drying them and crushing them into a matte medium paste, I was able to cover an entire 80" x 60" sheet. Throughout this time, I was thinking of it as a literal idiom for, "walking on eggshells." The thought came to me through observation of my life long habit of wanting to avoid negative feelings. Then I learned about a Bigger Container, which is a Zen metaphor for the skill of pausing and observing when one is engulfed in negative emotions. The next step is to label the thoughts and then when we are capable of seeing our thoughts as thoughts (unreal) and not as truth, then all we are left with is the direct experience of the physical reaction in the body. Thus, the form of the cube which both contains and does not contain the eggshells, is a visualization of letting go and becoming a Bigger Container.