The Row House

I have a few quick pics I snapped of my work that was up for critique today. I recently changed my thesis to row houses. I honestly felt completely compelled to make them for the past few months, and my mentor Paula had a dream about me, "You and 100 row houses"....she mentioned it to me two days after I had changed it, and before I mentioned the change to her. How'dya like that!

I am planning on using the row houses to illustrate the statistics of domestic violence in Baltimore City, which are staggering for me, and difficult to comprehend. I see the row houses as the souls of those affected, an unhappy house, no longer a home. With the row house imagery, the house effected by domestic violence is indistinguishable from the next. I see the inking process of the plates as saying something about the impact of violence on a person or a family....like an extra layer of gunk that takes away all the color and vibrancy and life from a home, or a person. (There is a photo of the colorful, un-inked plates below.)

I am a whirlwind of ideas and materials and metaphors right now. Unfortunately, I am still working on my new thesis statement, artist statement, and thesis proposal for this body of work, so that will all have to be explained in greater detail later. Until then...

And with that, I am on "vacation" from school. I have four MAJOR things to accomplish during the next month, and with my 40 hours per week at House of Ruth Maryland and continuing my art work, I'll hardly see any of that so called vacay. My work is never done folks. Literally.