Existential Explorations

How is that for a catchy title?

My most recent work has been about humanity's collective history. In it, I explore the common threads that bind us together as people. 

Death is something we can all relate to. It's such an integral part of the human experience that we have rigid funeral rituals surrounding it. We have many TV shows about homicide investigations. We establish religions that try to explain the mystery of death. It is the most mysterious part of our existence. No one can show with evidence what happens after our heart stops pumping and our brain shuts down. We can only make guesses.

This is a little hard to identify from this large view. That's because this screenprint is 70"x54" in dimension and is made up of more than a thousand 1" monkey faces.

These monkeys around the edges of the print are faded and fragmented. they have no defined facial features. They are undefinable.

The monkeys in the center of the print are printed with bold value and contrast. They have varying skin tones and clear features. They are more individualized.

This print is titled "Dunbar's Number" and represents a study that determined the total amount of people we are mentally capable of recognizing as friends or family within our social circle. 

Read more about it here. It's really fascinating stuff, and it explains a lot about human behavior. We are all "programmed" in a sense, to act a certain way. To accept certain people and reject others. It explains profiling and stereotypes. It accounts for horrible crimes committed against racial, religious and gender groups. I only hope someday that we can recognize our predispositions and overcome them in order to create a more unified world.

I had intended this to be a screen print, but I lost too much visual information in the process, so I decided it could be read better as a digital piece. The information in it is important to understanding the message. The title can help too. Una (As One).

This is an older piece, drawn 3 years ago, probably. It illustrates my fascination with being a part of the universe. I am committed to the idea that we were born to know more about this beautiful, crazy, dangerous universe we live in. Carl Sagan once said that "We're made of star-stuff. We are a way for the cosmos to know itself." That is probably the most beautiful call to action that I've ever heard. Dr. Bernard Anthony Harris, an astronaut, once commented on seeing earth from space: "It makes you color blind. You don’t see race, sex, ethnicities differences from space... It was in that moment I began to call myself an earthling because from up there we are all the same.” If just leaving earth's atmosphere can produce such a positive awareness of humanity's need for unity, I wish we could all take a trip to see it. For those of us without millions around for a pop up to space, I hope we can hear the voices who have, and recognize that in order to survive as humans, we must resolve our differences and learn to trust one another.

And now I step off my celestial soapbox.

The opening was a huge success!

Thanks to everyone who came out tonight to support me and view my artwork. It was so meaningful to me that so many people took the time to explore the work that has been so important to me for the past year. Here are some shots from the night:

My wonderful family and friends made me as happy as you see me in the bottom photo. I am reminded how many amazing people are in my life and how much they support me.

Hooray for the DAAP 2011 grads and good luck in the future to all of you! You have some crazy talent.

The books are almost finished!

The original binding has been recovered using archival-quality book cloth which has been embroidered with veins and screen printed with the volume's number and title for easy reference.

Volume 1 is titled Origins and addresses cellular processes of multiplication such as mitosis and the beginnings of evolutionary mutation.

Volume 2, Patterns, gives visual examples of how duplication and multiplication at a cellular level can create patterns in veins, the human circulatory system and tree branches. Self-similarity leads to these common patterns that repeat all throughout nature.

 Volume 3, Systems, takes this process a step further and shows how natural structuring in nature (such as river routes) produces man-made ordering (such as roads and city blocks). I am greatly inspired by the video "Powers of Ten", which shows how different scales of nature display similar patterns.
























Another page of this volume blurs the distinction between the growth of tree branches and that of human lungs.

The fourth volume, Ideology, references the ancient Greek custom of creating recognizable shapes in the night sky (constellations) to make the vast space seem less overwhelming.

In volume 5, Significance, I explore the phenomena that every human has experienced: that of feeling insignificant in an incomprehensibly large universe. I give visual examples of how humanity has dealt with this, including giant monuments and architectural wonders. I include a poem by Percy Shelley (one of my absolute favorites), "Ozymandias."

This acetate overlay in the same volume depicts 4 separate ruins of once-powerful civilizations, scanned and printed from pages in the original books.

The sixth and final volume, Satori, is named after a Buddhist term meaning a "flash of realization." I interpret this as the feeling that once you've met someone or become aware of an object or idea, you realize that it's been around you the whole time, and you simply have not had the right connections to recognize it. I combine several pages of collages, each based on a specific theme addressed in the other volumes, and how it applies to humanity, such as significance, war, poverty, injustice, royalty, etc... The first page opens to a layout of a human head with a galaxy where the brain would be, and surrounded by neuron imagery. While searching for an image of brain neurons, I discovered this fascinating gem comparing neurons to the structure of dark matter in the universe.

My thesis show is opening on June 7th (which is a Tuesday) from 5-9 in UC's Meyers Gallery. I would love for you to explore my books and discover the content for yourself. (This entry only shows a portion of it!) The show will be up until 

Here is a map of the campus, with the Meyers gallery location in red.

I hope to see you there!

A visit from Jen!

My dear friend Jen Rankey visited my studio yesterday for an informal interview. She took some great photos of my altered book project (in progress), and recorded the interview on her blog.




Thanks Jen!

We belong to each other.

As I walked home from class the other day, I passed a group of students shouting and chanting their support for the Libyan revolutionaries. I was not expecting to spend the rest of my 20 minute walk choking back tears, but I was so overwhelmed by these students' compassion for their struggling fellow humans- people they have probably never met, and might never meet! It was a ray of hope that whispered to me that this era is one of transformation. In this age of information overload, we can no longer ignore those in another continent, with another religion or of another race. We are no longer isolated and our globe is reeling with this new development. It allows us to show support for our fellow humans, to share ideas through translation mediums, and to understand from a layman's perspective other cultural enigmas. We are at a point where some cling to old-fashioned prejudices and fears, before tumbling into the new realm of equality. We can no longer claim ignorance, but must justify our selfish reactions to strange things. Our forum for discussion has exploded through sites like Twitter and Facebook, and we must now approach each other as a collective group, no longer as individuals.

The truth is that we all get afraid, we all have a favorite food, we have to have someone or something we can trust to feel secure, we bleed, we cry, we are inspired, we sing, and we dream.

We are not so different, you and I. Maybe I like the White Stripes and you think they're too loud and obnoxious. But underneath all of our trivial differences, we have a commonality that links us together: we are all bound to the same sphere of matter by a force stronger than ourselves, and we depend on many things to survive. Including each other.

The Dalai Lama once said, "All People and things are interdependent. The world has become so small that no nation can solve its problems alone, in isolation from others. That is why I believe we must all cultivate a sense of responsibility based on love and compassion for each other.”

Once we truly understand this, we will finally have peace. There are problems bigger than our difference of opinion, or who has money and land. Our world is falling apart because of these things, and we must use this as our common cause to fight together for.

Visual organization

When I am developing an idea, visual inspiration is very important to me. I need a place to spread out all my images and see the whole spectrum of visuals in front of me. I have recently started using a website called "Pinterest" to help me do this. It acts like an electronic pinboard. When I find an image that sparks my interest, or describes an idea for me visually, I can "pin" it to my board. When I click on my board, I see all the images I've selected appear on one big screen. I can add descriptions to my images, and they all have a link at the top that takes me back to the original webpage. There I can find other relevant information, read articles attached to the image, etc... It's been such a great resource to me as I'm piecing together my thoughts for this project.

You can find my thesis board here.

I've been thinking a lot about what interconnectedness really means. I notice so often that when I'm conscious of an idea, thing, or person, it shows up around me in many different ways. It's the same concept as meeting a person, then realizing that they've been somewhere around you the whole time. They ride your bus, or pass you on the street walking to work. Suddenly you're aware of them and they show up all over the place. 

Now that I'm aware of the repetition of forms, and the connections between seemingly disconnected elements, everything seems so much more holistic. I see things not just as isolated events or objects, but connected to a wider undercurrent. 

As I begin teaching at Princeton high school, I hear students say things like "Art doesn't affect me- it's not like I'm going to become an artist." This is saddening to me, because I have seen that making art can open one's mind to concepts and ideas that might never have occurred to them otherwise. Even beyond this, creative problem-solving (central to making art) can be useful in so many ways. It can help in job interviews, a relationship, even with saving for a car! Everything is useful in some way, and relates back to your life, even if it seems unlikely. Cultivating an attitude of holistic perception will help in so many ways you had never dreamed.