Julie A. DeRosa’s mixed-media sculpture, “How to Be Happy No Matter What Happens,” arrives in our physical reality at a poignant time in which the condition of happiness has lost its natural variable state of being, and instead is an idealized commodity to be constructed, purchased and, therefore, faked. Of the sculpture’s conceptual origins, DeRosa wrote, “Over the years, my thoughts on happiness have evolved quite a bit, and I get angry at the ‘happiness industry’ that prescribes all these shortcuts and environmental ways to be happy, yet avoids and ignores the deeper work one needs to do to figure out happiness. I also have come to resent that our society makes it seem as if we should be working to attain 24/7 happiness.” “How to Be Happy No Matter What Happens” is, formally, an assemblage sculpture built up from discarded, found and vintage materials, some considered relics, … [Read more...] about JULIE A. DEROSA: ASSEMBLING HAPPINESS PIECE BY PIECE