Rubber Duck

Fiona Daley

Think of a rubber duck:

bobbing happily, floating,

yellow and light

rain jacket keeping you dry,

think of sunshine

amid dark skies.

That’s what I think of

on benches in parks

watching them bob

happily on worldly waves

so colorful, so warm,

so small.

That’s what I thought of

when I was so small.

Thought the mirror was a

window,

not a wall.

Tightrope—

smallness swallows thoughts

too tiny to stay up,

balance the rod.

Thoughts frighten and

weigh down strides

so I sigh and try to

let go and float

like that duck on tub tides.

Lily Estep

Biography: As an artist I draw inspiration from the things that fascinate me and what scares me. I make things that reperesent me and my feelings, and how I navigate through them. The things I love that makes me feel peace combined with this overwhelming depression and sadness. Stylistically as a painter I would have to say I specialize in abstract pyschedelic horror pieces. Whether that be sharks, giant eyeballs, or vampires, I like to take something I love and surround it with mystery and confusion while having a feeling a sadness.

Artist Statement: For me the shark is a representation of someone’s own isolation in their everyday life as they battle depression. When they’re surrounded by these visions of horrible thoughts and pain that can’t be overcome, but they can go through them. Visions of other people surrounding them with happy or sad or angry emotions all the while while they feel nothing. How when you’re depressed a lot of the time all you can do is keep going. Sometimes when you have such negative feeligs and are overwhelmed with depression, you just need to get through it alone.

Fiona Daley

Biography: Fiona’s love for art came from her upbringing in the harsh Montana Rockies. Growing up an avid reader and self-taught artist—words, colors, lines, and melodies gave her a larger world to reside in than that of her small hometown. Her work is rooted in memoir and humanism, exploring her unique life-experiences as well as our shared humanity, by which she hopes to ease the isolation of this day and age.

Artist Statement: This poem came from my love of people watching. Sitting in the MU quad in the spring—where kids played in the grass and the sun peeked out of dark skies—brought me back to visions of my childhood and reminded me to let go and breathe a little.