Behind The Canvas: Collective Pains
Collage Painting Series, Spring 2019
Artist Statement
Pain, discomfort, and suffering are known to each and every one of us. At the same time, empathy and the ability to connect is part of our human experience. My work uses the area behind the canvas–the part we usually do not see, as a parallel to the emotions we do not show when observing, living through, or reflecting about pain. The ability to see “behind the canvas” explores intimacy and the ability to create both a space of reflection and empathy for the beings telling you their story.
Are they me? Are they you? Are they us? My works are collage paintings. I use collage to sew images and situations together that invite you to reflect over shared pain. Pain from war, poverty, thirst, hunger, sexual assault, mass shootings, family separation, migration, to name a few. The paintings are abstracts to show raw and emotional visualizations of these human forms of pain. The canvas is pierced, cut, nailed, shredded, much like emotions feel like when experiencing pain. Suffering is human, so is empathy. I invite you to share in this collective healing experience where we heal our humanity by sharing in our collective pain. A space to process the pain is necessary to birth the honesty that is asked of us when we reflect on our humanity and our ability to feel empathy.