Through my work I find differences in my inner life as compared to my outer appearance -headspace versus physical space- not unlike those games for children in newspapers where you have to find the difference between two images. Similarly, I can construct a thousand versions of myself based on the variety of thoughts or emotions I have in a given day.
I use systems (specific mediums) to question how convention informs identity. Drawing is indexical, particularly referencing and tracing back to the physical space of the artist. My drawings are about investment within a limitations or constraints - less being more, like the decision to marry.
Using the photograph as a source, I draw my image larger than life. I monumentalize moments and I deem them special occasions. The moment (statement) passes, but the drawing is permanent. Drawing is a "stick to your ribs" medium; it has staying power. Statements (whether spoken, painted, thought, given or drawn) are fickle and grand - deflated or elevated, changing but demonstrative. There is satisfaction in the process of drawing - an accounting of events that I might have forgotten otherwise. The drawing becomes a reminder, like a souvenir penny, stamped with the place and date of my trip.
The works are Humpty Dumpty versions of myself, looked at, broken down, picked at,
and pieced back together.
Self Portrait Within Limits
graphite on paper with grommets, 52.5 x 115, 2006