'Tears'

LINE DISPERSAL & ACCUMULATION DIPTYCH

SEPTEMBER 2021 — PAPER, CHARCOAL, NEEDLE & THREAD

Artist Statement

Seeking new ways to make lines: I took an amethyst geode cluster and scraped it hard across these papers, marking them up, the outcome were thin scratches, accordion-ed paper, and gaping holes. I felt my hands repeatedly pulling the geode from the top of the page to the bottom, again and again, and the bottom to top again and again without a thought. I was in love with these lines. Rigid and grungy, never two lines alike.

Following my initial instinct, I ground up my charcoal sticks and poured the powder and crumbs into a plastic bag, then I inserted the sheets, slightly crumpled, into the bag, tied it shut, and shook it. What I pulled out of the bag were two beautiful and sad looking papers. The several values of gray that tainted my piece had unflattened the image, added texture, depth and wonder.

Completing them as if finishing a thought, I pierced the pages with needle and thread. Connecting the two papers through what appears to be a vertical while disassembled line, drawing your gaze across the two pieces.

These pages convey sorrow to my eyes. They are dirty, scratched up, falling apart, and sad. This is what anguish and misery looks like. ‘Tears’ as in torn paper and,‘Tears,’ as in the ones that so often grace my face.