Sena Clara Creston

Fortitude is a series of impromptu driftwood beach huts along the California coast. The erosion of driftwood from both found and natural materials possesses a sense of familiarity and security; offset by precarious uncertainty. Fortitude is a portmanteau of Fort and Attitude, and a word describing the resilience required to seek and sustain shelter on this entropic planet. The collective history of driftwood ranges from fallen trees, fire fodder, and spent lumber; illustrating which pieces were washed out and up as unadulterated trees with original knots, displaced by a fire with lingering charcoal patterns, or lumbered with proper right angles; only to fall into disrepair, be washed away into the ocean, and washed back to shore with the rest of the driftwood. Fortitude invites viewers to experience, empathize, and engage with their environment; reflecting on what is considered natural in an increasingly mediated world.