Drawing From Memory

I’m interested in the emotions that come about which cannot be given names. These are sentiments that can only be communicated visually, as if from memories we aren’t aware of, that have been passed down to us through a sort of pre-verbal language, one that concerns the lives of minerals, bacteria, people, plants, and planets.

The intellectual focus of this series is more effectively described with questions rather than statements: Are the emotions we consider to be uniquely human actually subjective interpretations of universal phenomena? Are our feelings of attraction so different from forces that bind molecules together? Do the fracturing of rock and the compression of minerals have a parallel in the human experience? Does a carrot, in its own way, scream in agony upon being ripped from the earth? Do we empathize with the plight of the amoeba escaping the dreaded paramecium in our everyday lives? Do we all have a little bit of squid soul inside, among other kinds? Do squids have a little bit of human? What about goat soul or gem-stone soul? How does one know if one’s sense of self is or is not a patchwork of cosmic forces and swampy memories?

Like the majority of my work, these are personal memories and feelings, some conscious, some not, explored through visual poetry.