Since the beginning, people have communicated with text and image. From drawing on cave walls to their own flesh, human beings could not be silenced from story telling and truth seeking. However, communication and truth are often strangers. It takes much self-analysis and shedding of layers to find the truth written on our soul. But what if my most intimate thoughts appeared on my flesh for everyone to see? Our interior language would become a publicly viewed text by all who looked upon us. Then I would not have to seek the truth, for it would already be apparent. What would that do to the way I see myself in others’ eyes? My truth would be seen immediately, and I would be exposed. No veil, no façade of unblemished skin to hide the scars of life’s journey.
So, I will write my truth upon the flesh of my Art. My Art is my Voice.
My need to be an orator has long passed with youth and idealism. I no longer pretend to know the answers to things and realize that my own journey is often convoluted and gray. Being an artist does not make me exempt from the daily labyrinth of indecision and obscurity. It does not allow me to look from the outside in, or from a higher point than the rest. It does, however, enable me to express, to speak, to shout and to cry the feelings, out loud for everyone to probe and to judge. It may be that we all feel the same things, but that is never something that is expected or required as the creative language unfolds. I have learned the only truth I know, is that which I seek internally.
My work will not bring you out of darkness into the light. I cannot make order out of chaos. I can do nothing, but honestly observe and feel. From those experiences, I show you my voice, my battle cries, my scars, and my vulnerability. From here you may feel that we are sisters, lovers, cousins, friends. But even that cannot be the reason in which I seek the truth. It must be for my own human plight, my own journey to find out why I am here and to what purpose this lonely road challenges me.
These works wear my personal inner dialogues on the surface, in order to be completely open and exposed to both my own private mirror and to the viewer’s discerning eyes. It is at this level of exposure that I find truth and honesty, and an inner courage I find important to share with others.