Drawings
Language: operating under a strict set of rules and systems, it follows
patterns and guidelines that have been set in place to create the most
accurate and agreed upon method of relating. Each language, however,
operates under varying conditions and is thus confined in relating only in
its own realm of sameness.
Communication: requiring two or more active and engaged participants,
fully committed to each other in patience, understanding, and love, while
operating under the strict rules of language.
Miscommunication: in bringing together two or more participants who do
not operate under the same systems of language, these subjects will
endure difficulties in understanding.
As I sift through old photographs, those of my mother growing up, I am
thrown into a place I cannot know. I can never be taken there, to the
physical and emotional reality that existed. What I look at is only a
fragment, a false composition of accuracy. But because I know my mother,
I read her expressions and translate them into some emotional state of the
image and of the fragmented family history. In this way I communicate (or
miscommunicate), only partially, with the subject matter. Because of my
inability to transport myself to the reality of the scene, my understanding of
the relationships can never be complete. I begin to mix what I know of
present relational separations and what I have been told about past ones.
In doing so, I read the photographs as inaccurate reflections of strained
relationships. I have taken the subjects from their emotional reality and
used them to explore the language of miscommunication.
Two languages I have chosen to work with are those of the sighted
(photographic images) and the unsighted (braille and touch). The drawings
become an interface with qualities of both worlds. Textures become strong
visual elements that leave their familiar realm of touch, yet they continue to
beckon the viewer to reach forward and see if the texture is as accurate
and pleasing as a texture as it is as a visual element. My hope is that the
drawings will create an intrigue of the unfamiliar and a longing to
understand that which may never be possible to reach. Fragments of
photos and memories are pieced together, permanently existing as
impermanent conclusions.