“I believe that (its) beauty is the result of use, of being subject to time."
– Mark Doty
Personal subjective histories are not recorded in the same way that the history of countries are in textbooks; these unspoken histories exist in the memories of others and the physical traces of their lives on the spaces and objects around them. The traces of a person’s life and habits can be discerned in the worn patches on the hardwood floor; memories can be triggered by the faded wallpaper silhouette where a bed used to sit. These spaces and objects embody a beauty in the marks of time passing, and speak quietly about human experience in an unparalleled way that I am captivated by. My work explores the way these tangible artifacts or emotional experiences of memory can intimately personify our identities. Whether using found objects, photographs, printmaking, or installation spaces, my work seeks to evoke ideas of loss, memory and desire.
Printmaking continues to root much of my investigation, especially in the way it contains the history of marks made over time and the repeated touch and processing of a similar surface, much like the reliving of a memory. Through the process of printing imagery with the gritty ash and charcoal from a fire, or distortion of large scale photographs with repeated layers of deep black ink washes, I aim to deconstruct the past, and reconstruct a visceral and emotional experience that speaks to history and preservation, memory and loss. By creating this work, I seek to illicit a conversation with my viewer about desire for preservation of self-identity, our physical and psychological connections to spaces and objects, and about individual and collective experiences of memory.
