The Rock In The Storm is based on the Silent Year project which is an exploration of the interior landscape of transitions; the deepest places of alchemy where our ability to adapt to losses spring from. These spiritual holding spaces of becoming, portray the places where body and spirit meet and define one another.

The Covid pandemic was the catalyst for this work as I experienced my inner world shifting with the restrictions and upheaval of the world around me. Loosely based on the teachings of Swiss psychiatrist C.G.Jung, I have universalized these adaptations to change by creating visual archetypes. Through the repeated use of a single face, the inner psychological processes become the focus and the human figure is merely a visual bookmark from which to anchor to.

The process of adaptation and transition has always been steeped in mystery. It doesn't happen all at once but in increments of light and awareness. The impetus for change may be abrupt or more subtle in nature, it may vary in intensity or in length, but the result is always the same; we adapt.

Dawn Surratt earned a B.A. in Studio Arts from the University of North Carolina in Greensboro and a Bachelor and Master’s Degree in Social Work from the University of Georgia. Her years of work with dying patients in hospice settings is the backbone of her imagery combining photographs with photography based book structures, installations, and objects as visual meditations exploring concepts of grief, transition, healing and spirituality.

Dawn is a full time artist living in rural North Carolina and teaches multi-media process and photography object work through Maine Media Workshops and College.