Iraj Danial’s story

It was probably two in the morning on a school night, me in bed trying to sleep, when I first saw it. A sponge in place of my very own brain. But it wasn’t anything ordinary. It was full, drenched and soapy, unable to function properly. To function the way it was designed to. I thought of the large bubbles it was surrounded by, little visuals and scenarios playing on the insides. Memories. Colorful, significant, and emotional memories floating away, far out of control. The bubbles were fading, losing color at the edges, turning a crisp, dark grey or black. Pieces of myself that my sponge couldn’t hold together anymore. Like the bubbly white soap scattered around, knowledge that was lost. Lost in order to make space for newer knowledge that I couldn’t comprehend without fragments I had lost. Surrounding the sponge that floated around the dark void I envisioned in my bedroom were puzzle pieces. The pieces of me I no longer had the capacity to hold. To embrace. Beneath this all were chains, visualizing how my brain was literally suspended in a void I had no way of getting out of. And somewhere in the midst of this all, I fell asleep. However, when I woke up that morning, I remembered my vision, which is the exact moment I knew I had to bring it to life. That’s how I picked up my story, “A Sponge for a Brain.”

I am Iraj Danial, and my art piece reflects me and just about the last few years of my life. Personally, I feel like I’m constantly stuck inside of my own head and can’t seem to find a balance. Whenever my words failed me, I resorted to expressing myself through my artwork to survive. What began as a reflection of the suffocating weight of mental overload evolved into a reminder that even when we feel chained to an empty void, creating allows us to piece ourselves back together and grow beyond whatever's been holding us back!