Eternal Narrative

Method: Etching, Chine Colle, Monotype

Blind Optimism

Method: Chine Colle – Monotype

Manhattan Born

Method & Medium: Soft ground and Spit Bite Etching with Silk Thread Embroidery of  Love Letter (Punk Style) In Morse Code

Subtext

The embroidered morse code are short “bytes” written in “punk” style such as: I love you. My bloody valentine.  Love me. My bloody me. Hiking the Sangre de Cristo mountains in New Mexico a few years ago, I encountered a wasp eating the head of a butterfly while perched on a black-eyed susan. Yes, yellow jackets and wasps are carnivores, so too are butterflies. I love nature. It was also around the time I had a terrible crush on someone who loved punk music. And yes, the crush crashed and burned. Now you know the subtext.

Medium: Gold Pewter Leaf, Silk Thread, Monotype

Speak Softly Gently

Method: Monotype

Made

Method & Materials: Solar Plate Etching, Mica Metallic Monotype

Untitled

Method: Monotype

Six Pack Yoke Choke I

Given the long list of species modern humans have deemed as invasive, I wonder why modern humans were not on this list as well. Our irresponsible consumption creates waste that threatens wildlife on land and sea. We have become a super organism, an invasive species. These six pack rings that hold cans strangle ocean life as they get ensnared in them. One Florida brewery took action against these plastic death traps and rolled out a solution to make them safer.  But that is only one brewery. We need more sustainable solutions to address our waste.

Method: Silk Thread, Chine Colle, Monotype

Return to Life

I threaded the delicate bones of cicada over a drawing of a female to suggest the revival of her life after a tragic event.

“The Cicada is an ancient polyvalent symbol: resounding themes are resurrection, immortality, and spiritual realization.”

The female in the drawing looks back to reflect upon a tragic event depicted by a car crash. I continued the thread over the car crash frames to connect the two events. The three frames are taken from a stop frame animation of a match box car crash I staged in Washington Square Park many years ago.  Tragic events disrupt life similar to the way death disrupts life. We plunge into reflection, darkness, and even depression as we come to terms with the meaning of the event. It may take several years before we are repaired and resurface to continue with life anew. Just as the cicada lays dormant in the ground for seven years before returning to the surface so do we remain buried in our thoughts before climbing out of darkness to meet the light.

Along with the thread and the blood-vein like shape, there is a warm female shadow that also connects the two events. It is the soul that undergoes the spiritual transformation in the body. Here, at this moment, it could be her soul that is ready to help make the transition to return to life.