2023
Charcoal on paper
11” x 11” each

Next is the ‘Obstruction’ series.

Very much in the same vein as the ‘Omission’ pieces, this series is meant to highlight what grief does when it blocks out the subjects of your memories, rather than removing them entirely. You can’t quite see details. Subjects are bathed in shadow. It’s like a dream, where you know that they’re there, but you can’t touch, can’t interact, can’t make anything out.

It’s as if your memory has been infiltrated by silhouettes.

On a technical note, you find that on some of the drawings with a lot of black, the surface seems splotchy. This is a case of a mistake turning around and becoming an integral part of the work. I sprayed the fixative on when it was too cold outside, and the splotches are where the fixative froze. You can see it a lot in “Smile”. It looks like something spilled on the pieces.

But it actually worked out fine for the narrative. These are meant to be abstracted memories, like snapshots being distorted. And who among us doesn’t have an old Polaroid with something spilled on it?