NOCTURNES
September 11 - October 25, 2023
Lonestar College University Park
When I was a child, I used to be afraid of falling asleep, worried about dreams, nightmares and all that would await me in this wild, untamed space. As an adult, I have continued to view the evening hours with both a sense of sublime awe and unease, for it is an active realm populated by contrasts: of lights and darks, silence and sound, simultaneously a space of mystery, and one of peaceful reverie.
These feelings were amplified during quarantine as I found myself awake at strange hours in the night, my mind spinning with anxieties about our pandemic-ridden society. My studio practice became a lifeline during this time, a way to quiet my thoughts and access a place of stillness.
The drawings in my current series Nocturnes are an attempt to confront conflicting feelings regarding the nocturnal space - to reconcile tensions, to sit with the unknown and find beauty in the shadows. Working in a primarily subtractive method allows for ghostly expressions to emerge from dark inky voids, giving form to unseen fears. Through marring, layering, erasing, and excavating, a new visual language is revealed, one that helps me process a world in which I’m finally beginning to feel safe.
