I have started a new series of Emotion Maps, abstract representations of what is happening in my brain on black paper. I've also started a new book that I am calling Memory Tracings, abstract mixed media pieces in an old book called Figure Skating Technique. The idea for both of these series/works grew out of my Personal Stratigraphy Maps. In both cases I'm trying to grasp something that is etherial - the visualization of a present moment emotion or nostalgia of a specific time and place.
Here is a gallery of the first 14 Emotion Maps. I've got 6 more (so far) to photograph but am under the weather today (not Covid!) and photographing is an intensive process so it will have to wait. Plus, I'll probably make more of these since I still have quite a few sheets of the black paper. I got it on clearance at Michael's on a whim (I really try to use what I have on hand rather than buying new) and I'm loving the effect of building layers of translucence with that stark background.
I haven't properly photographed the Memory Tracings book yet but here are a few process/progress shots from the studio. I used to figure skate competitively as a kid and part of competing way back when was figures. I always felt confined by the figure component of skating because it was about precision and following your tracings perfectly. My joy was in flying around the rink, jumping and spinning and performing to music in the freestyle programs. On each page of this book I am revisiting the rink and abstractly interpreting the confinement of figures and/or the freedom of freestyle with layers of mixed media.
