Through woodblock and mono printing, I’m creating figures to represent the nuances, the “ambivalences,” in the decisions behind vocalized language.

As you negotiate social space, do you follow consistent criteria for when and how you voice your thoughts?

I’m asking myself, How do you communicate? Is this working for you? When you have something to say, how do you proceed? 

I’m interested in how we navigate normed social structures while improvising based on our intuitive understanding of what “needs to be said.” 

In my inquiry, I’m creating a documentation system to identify patterns in how I structure my own social systems and then improvise within them. 

To represent outer social structures, I’m seeking to capture a geometric or systems based ascetic through woodblock prints, which involve repeatedly printing a specific “shaped” form. Within the same work, I’m seeking to represent the “ambivalences” and improvisations in communication within a structure by using the monoprint technique to print an “improvised” figure overtop or “within” the structured marks of the proceeding woodblock print. 

Within this layered process, I’m deeply interested in the hesitations or negotiations we engage with within ourselves before words physically leave the mouth and enter social space. What keeps us from voicing our wants and needs? 

These processes also offer an element of “taking away” or “removal” (removing wood from the block as it is carved into, or taking away ink from a plate to make a monoprint) which serve as a metaphor for the removal of hesitation, doubt, or fear we must process in order to speak. 

This is especially when making a request, expressing a need, or voicing the disagreeable.