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Not Because I Need You to Know

Series. 2023.

A pencil drawing on paper. Much of the paper is empty. Just below center is a mass of bodies clustered together. They look like they could be the same person or related people. They vary in size slightly from toddler-ish to pre-teen. They each appear to be trying to touch another figure that's just out of reach for them. Drops of liquid fall from their faces and bodies. Four spindly flowers grow in front of them.

Touching and touching

Graphite on Bristol, 24"x36".

The moment I decided to intentionally deconstruct my tones/values, I felt a compulsion to draw my biological family.

These drawings feel like spit. They are ambiguous in the way spit is ambiguous: they show unavoidable negotiations of power and consent the way spit does. Perhaps this is why, despite the lack of actual liquid, the only “accurately” rendered moments are scattered droplets across faces.

"Touching and touching" was the winner of the 2024 Irving S. and Joan Tick Award for Drawing at the 2024 Juried Student Annual at Illinois State University and University Galleries, Normal, IL.

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