MK Gallery | Portland State University Art Department | PSU Student Exhibitions

MK Gallery | 2^nd Floor  Gallery | PSU Art Department Building |Room 207 | 2000 SW 5^th Ave. | PDX, OR

Gallery hours: Monday-Friday | 10-5 p.m. | Or by appointment:  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

 

 Statement:

“This Is Pain” is a series of pieces created from a mixture of printmaking, paper staining, and drawing. I combine lithography, etching, Linoleum cuts, using the process of chine collé and spray adhesives. I begin these creations with spontaneous pencil drawings where I allow the pencil to move directly onto the linoleum without prior planning. The idea behind these images is to allow my body to move in a natural direction without restricting it from my thoughts. The results of these drawings comes from my subconscious and is translated through what I call “subconscious movements” where I allow my hand to move without conscious thoughts or pre planning involved. The translation from my mind to my hand usually comes in the form of worm like images entangled within themselves. After printing these images I realized that I had come full circle. I was now creating a more defined version of the art that I had created as a teenager. With the painful memories of my childhood and teen years as well as a recent separation I became inspired to search for images that I could use to connect and relate to my inner pain.                 

 

These pieces slowly built up and began to represent my life. As I became more accepting of the worm images I decided to make an attempt at visually capturing and representing memories and emotions from my past to combine with the worms. The connections made where with abandonment, ghosts, and my Native American heritage.

 

As I collected images the most influential item is the feather. I have been randomly collecting pigeon feathers for the past two years and began building an Indian head piece onto an old Halloween skeleton, as I needed I would pluck the feathers and add them to my prints. This began an inspiration of ghosts and my Native American Cherokee heritage. This is where I made an attempt at being honest with myself and creating pieces that where not all about aesthetics, and instead filled with the emotion, pain and passion that I have carried throughout my life. I used etchings of maps to represent abandonment and love, feathers to show the death of my heritage and my loneliness, and faded ghostly self-portraits confronting my vulnerability and often times lack oh hope.