In memory of Artist Lisa Bufano

Concrete life cast & found metal
102” x 48” x 48”
$6,000

I met Lisa Bufano in 2012, and we connected instantly over art. She had survived a traumatic amputation that saved her life, and rather than let it define her limits, she turned her disability into raw material for performance—building an accomplished career through residencies, fellowships, and international shows. We began conceptualizing a sculpture together, inspired by the strange and striking mechanical prosthetics she used in her performances. The last time I saw her, she came up from San Francisco to my Sonoma County studio for the day, sewing machine in tow, working on a squid dress lined with wire tentacles meant to prick the wearer as they moved. We spent the day talking through ideas for a body cast of her fused with machine and mechanical limbs. I asked if she'd be willing to start the cast that day; she said she was too depressed to go through with it, and I didn't press. We just worked side by side instead. It was a sweet, quiet day, and I didn't know it would be our last together.

Five weeks later, Lisa took her own life. She had been caught between impossibly high rents in San Francisco and a disability system that made no room for her, stringing together an artist's income from grants and residencies, carrying a depression she spoke of openly. It was her choice to leave, and I respect it, even as I miss her every day. In mourning, it became clear I needed to finish what we'd started—so a friend posed for the body cast in Lisa's place, and I built this sculpture in her memory. I named it One of Us after the tattoo Lisa shared with several of her disabled friends, a line from the film Freaks that captured how she saw herself: a disabled person navigating a world built for "normal" bodies. This piece is my continuation of our collaboration, and I hope, wherever she is, that she's pleased with it.