186,000: You lift me, I lift you
2022, detail, monotype with graphite and ink, various wove papers Dimensions variable. Currently showing: Galveston Arts Center. 
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Liminal
“One eye sees, the other feels.” -Paul Klee For the last few years, I have been inspired by hikes in caves, national parks, and the hoodoos of New Mexico, but also by simple walks in the Texas woods and along Houston streets. Who knew that one day I would find myself cocooned in my house, unable to travel, explore, or move about in nature? I was cut off from my primary print studio, Burning Bones Press, for several months. I pulled out my charcoals, graphite pencils, tubes of gouache and watercolor and started drawing. Using as my inspiration The Epicenter, a photo essay—not clearly in focus, all a bit gray—published in the July 2020 New York Times Magazine, I set out to capture the feelings of fear, chaos, and exhaustion portrayed on the masked faces of the nurses and doctors in NYC. Like Jasper Johns, a favorite artist/printmaker, I use photographs and other reference materials as my starting point—enlarging, zooming in, creating new compositions. For this series, I made large charcoal drawings and studies in my sketchbook. As I sat at my drawing table, I thought about the emotions and challenges we were all facing: the isolation, the loss of normalcy, the distortion of time; the uncertainty, the fear, the anger; but also the love and the kindness. Could I capture these emotions in my work? I started by using my small home studio press and paper hospital gowns to create monotype prints that I then drew back into—searching for lines and shapes, darkness and light. When I was able to return to my print studio, I continued the same process, but on a larger scale. |
Honored
2022, monotype with graphite and ink, Canson Editioning, 44 inches x 32 inches |
Forgotten
2022, monotype with graphite and ink, Canson Editioning, 32 inches x 44 inches One of the most heart-breaking stories during the pandemic of 2020 was that of Dr. Lorna Breen, a doctor from New York City who took her own life during the pandemic. In her honor, her family has established the Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes Foundation to help over-whelmed doctors find the mental health resources they may need. |