give the murdered girl some space

.














someone in oakland is using nancy spungen's last name as their tag and i absolutely love that. whoever you are, keep going! i want to follow your lead! i want to write the names of murdered girls everywhere. i want to keep their names alive and in front of all our eyes. maybe we could all do this? let's all buy paint pens on payday.

collection...

last night before bed, i spread out a small collection of drawings and paintings i've done over the passed few weeks and was really pleased with what i saw-
there is such a solid direction and cohesiveness to this work that i guess i was entirely unaware of until seeing a few grouped together.



protect
24" x 17 3/4"
oil on canvas
2008

my investigation of the need for protection and the pleasure of safety are leading me to see the new poetry that is born inside trauma and fragmentation... the loss we tolerate when we put up fences and wondering where i can find the space to build a site of hope within all this obsessive seperation and fear...




untitled haven
9 3/4" x 6 1/4"
mixed media collage
2008

of course, we need fences but when do we stop building them? where is the guideline that we can turn to and say, "oops! one too many, let's take that last one down. we've lost too much."




all my cages were empty
5" x 5"
ink on torn book page
2008

sometimes the desire for protection doesn't rise from a healthy place. in the case of the edited document, it's a need for protection from embarrassment and an unwanted, damaging exposure. it hides information angrily... maliciously... a sign of the corruption of the one who wields the big black marker.




Anonymous Girls study
7 1/2" x 5 1/2"
ink on paper
2008

but i'm trying to find beauty anyway... these delicate phrases that remain in spite of the obliteration i've done to them.




dust flower
8 1/4" x 5 1/4"
acrylic on book page
2008

how gorgeous is the fragmented phrase "a dust flower". stunning. poetic. destruction and loss turned against itself.




the penalty (detail)
13" x 10"
mixed media collage
2008

i feel like i'm on the right track.

sneak peak

still recovering from staying up all night printing, but coming away with some work i really like makes it worth being dead on my feet. i'm in the process of completing an edition i started that night. 15 so far but i'm thinking of letting the edition swell to at least 30. we'll see. in the meantime, here's a preview:



breach
11" x 15"
wood cut with hand-painted elements on paper
(ink, gouache, glitter)
2008

definitely the next incarnation in the 'Territories' series and i can't wait to finish the edition and lay them all out and see them together. i'm hoping i can get it finished up by monday but i'll be cutting it close.

Anonymous Landscape 1

10" x 10"
oil on canvas
2008

my fascination with the collective human urge to protect, stake claims, and establish ownership has led me to consider land and our feelings toward it. recently, my friend heather and i were discussing the native american outlook on land ownership: that it makes no sense. how does one come to own land? it's the same as stating one can own the air - something free and shared by all. how tragically opposite this outlook is to the american perception of ownership.

i've also been thinking about land as a classified document in and of itself - it hides its history. when we look out at a landscape, the events that have taken place within its boarders are not at all apparent. trees and tall grass can erase the signs of war, and leave us with no signal of its true past. bearing this in mind, putting a fence around that landscape seems redundant - we'll never know what secrets the land keeps.

it is our fear that drives the desire to stake claims and put up fences: stranger danger. we're afraid our neighbors will take what we've worked for... and why not? the history of the world is full of conquest, pillaging, taking. we've shown each other that none of us can be trusted. is that cynical? or is it true? finding answers to these questions is what my practice is trying to uncover. i'm trying to show that, just as easily as we put up fences around a house or farm, we put up frnces around ourselves. we lock each other out. we wait to hear unknowable passwords instead of extending trust or compassion.

i'm trying to see what we've lost in order to know where to go.

territories...

territories (black fences)
30" x 22"
ink on paper
2008



territories 2
30" x 22"
ink and glitter on paper
2008



territories 3 (black fences)
30" x 22"
ink on paper
2008



territories 4 (black and gold)
30" x 22"
ink on paper
2008



territories 5 (guard)
30" x 22"
mixed media on paper
2008