Improbable Impossibles: Variations on a family theme
This work explores the complex and often fraught relationships across two continents and three generations of women in my family. In this series of drawings, I use unaltered as well as doctored family photos as source material. They include family members inherited, lost, kept and chosen. These women did not necessarily exist in the same time and space, yet here I will them to do so. This is evident in the absurd, often grotesque yet humorous scenarios they are put through, and the awkward smiles they put on while sharing the same space. Merging actual events with wishful thinking and unrealized fears, I materialize dreams and nightmares on the page. While serious cameos provide heartfelt portraits of love across generations, the more simplified, cartoon-like renditions of family members allow for playfully honest and deprecating insight into these women’s foibles and conflicts. This loose and seemingly discombobulated narrative depicts moments filled with tension and hope. Although these images are part of an ongoing conversation with dead and living members of my family, it is my hope that they also evoke from the audience rueful recognition of familiar, familial ties.