Impressions

Everyone connects with history in a personal way. In celebrating the removal of Confederate and racist monuments from the “public square,” I asked myself which historical markers resonate with me and why. Beginning at home and expanding outward, I have been making rubbings from public monuments and historical plaques that reflect how these histories have shaped my life. I select words and phrases and embed the rubbed text fragments into layered compositions created with ink, pencils, and water-soluble crayons on handmade paper.

My “Impressions” series engages themes including land, water, electricity, immigration, nonviolence as a political practice, civil and labor rights, and civic institutions such as the public library and the post office. Using history as a subtext, I integrate words, marks, and patterns metaphorically and literally, inviting personal reflection and community discussion of public resources, individual lives, and contested histories.

Geometric patterns, prominent in this work, play a central role in shaping my experience. Patterns help me navigate space and recognize what populates my world. They define infrastructure and interconnection, and reveal fundamental principles of matter. I value how they aid in analyzing the past and anticipating the future, and offer insights into systems within myself and in the world around me. This interplay of patterns and words is a way I contextualize myself in relation to nature, place, time, and history.

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