As an artist, I do not chase after a predetermined result. Unlike the chemist, who experiments in her lab to arrive at a verifiable fact, what I seek does not follow the same path to discovery. There are no markers placed by others in a linear way, no concrete proof of progress. It is a moving target that keeps me questioning, experimenting and refining, and ultimately, achieving a final product that meets the leap of faith of my expectations. Printmaking especially affords this kind of process and requires this kind of faith – you can only design your intent so much — the rest unfolds on its own.
Through my work, I continue trying to capture and freeze a specific moment and the passing of time; the fleeting nature of memory; the very process of remembering; and the transitory nature of our mortality – the paradox of fixing the ephemeral in place.
Using the idea of erasure as language, I explore subjects of violence, memory, perception, and the multiple, through processes that are reductive. I endeavor to illustrate how erasure, however violent and destructive, can also be an act of creation. The destruction of the original image is not merely a disintegration. It is itself a new idiom.
This “destruction” takes its form from the erasure of a particular image; it is my intention to transform it, from crude and distressing, into a more beguiling or subtle form for presenting disturbing events. The seeming void created by this transformation presents a new space that can foster reflection on the original image. The new form provides the viewer with a new mode of experiencing familiar subject-matter and creating memories of it. It can provide a sense of catharsis, but also more thoughtful, and longer-lasting, engagement.
Representations of the visible will always show residues and traces of the invisible; the images I create connect the spheres of what can be seen and what can be only intuited. My work is derived from a need to find meaning in distressing events that repositions mortality in our field of vision, reminding us that our physical existence is a temporary one.