Nine Works

The relationship between oneself and others, from the micro- to macrocosm, from the physical to the spiritual is fascinating to me. The way our lives are shaped by rationality and unconsciousness, the connection between our present actions and past and future are reflections dear to me because they increase our sense of responsibility and belonging. I approach my work with this same spirit, technically and visually, letting it grow through marks and traces over a surface that always suggests to me where to go in a relation of trust between the known and unknown. I speak of what I feel and experience, but focusing mostly on positive messages that might bring people together rather than apart.

At the core of my research is drawing, where lines, over the course of my career, have extended from works on paper to painting, sculpture and video. Until 2018 mostly of my paintings were executed entirely with colored pencil over a monochromatic layer of acrylic paint laid down, not with brush, but with thick fingerprints. When drawn over, the texture from the fingerprints is highlighted creating detail and visual complexity. In addition to the process described above, recently I began working with oil paint, which has drying times slow enough to allow scratching into the surface, a process of subtraction that reveals what’s underneath.

One reading of the fingerprints is that they are the accumulation of traces, but in different contexts they assume different meanings. In some works they are reminiscent of biometrics which, however, represent the unique identity of individuals without revealing information about gender, race or nationality. In the large-scale paintings, the fingerprints look like microscopic particles, as if the human trace has dissolved into the cosmos mixing with bacteria and dust.

While situated securely in the contemporary moment, ultimately, I seek for an atemporal language, one that motivates humanity beyond the quotidian. I am interested in visual expressions that seek a language of kinship, both socially and ecologically. In a world of fragmentation, I am seeking a discourse that connects, and could possibly raise sentiments of empathy. My work reflects on the self and speaks of inner landscapes that are either protected by boundaries or boundless and open to otherness. Despite the fact that the fingerprints on the surface of my paintings are mine, they extend to dissolution. It is my body (and my sense of responsibility) that spreads, shifting between internal and external, blurring the personal with the collective, the physical with the ethereal.