The theme that has permeated my art for the past year has been an exploration of the lack of dialog around race, culture and disability. My exploration originated in the idea that we choose to “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil” when it comes to topics like race and culture, which silences the dialog.
In order to develop progressive change in this country, we need to See, Hear, and Speak. I chose to focus on these three verbs, because alone they represent the actions necessary to start genuine effective dialog, which will be the first step to progressive social change.
After attending a professional development training called 'Courageous Conversations' as a teacher in the Pittsburgh Public Schools district, I felt even more inspired to produce art that fosters that important dialog.
Black ink on black paper.The original print is an exploration of readability as a representation of the difficulty of creating effective dialog. I then used different ink color and substrates to further hinder or enhance readability and visibility of the words.
Variations. Clockwise from top left: light grey ink, white ink over black ink without washing screen to explore mixing, close up of white over black, acid free adhesive on velum to explore transparency effects.
The mantra of the Courageous Conversation method is to "Speak Your Truth", a call to share your perspective in an attempt to connect with others and learn about their perspectives. This has become the next phase of my exploration, and is still in progress.
