Liminal Stagnation is a series of works Cara created to express the effects generational trauma has had on her sense of self and wellbeing, exploring the specific ways she has been affected by my familial trauma. She chose to express via animal depictions, as they show fewer emotions than humans when under stress, which connects to Cara’s experience of losing the ability to express herself during stressful and traumatic moments. Cara chose the fox to represent herself, as they can be both loners and family-oriented and connects to her personally both emotionally and via childhood fascination.

While the topics Cara is depicting are still currently sensitive to her, these works are a big step towards her personal healing journey and have helped her process her emotions and griefs she has with people in her life. Much of Cara’s creative process has been allowing her emotions to create each piece, going into each without a finalized idea of what she wants the end-product to look like. Likewise, she made each piece with acrylic painting, as Cara finds painting to be a calming and meditative process that allows her to put her emotions to the canvas. She has treated this series akin to an art therapy session, allowing her emotions and experiences to speak for themselves within each work.