Spring 2002: First Time I Saw Justin

I travel space and time.

I think we all do. As you sit and read, time passes through you- an imperceptible but relentlessly strong current. It won't stop for you just because you sit there. You're traveling time.

We travel space. Yes, we are literally hurtling through space on this little blue marble of a planet. We inhabit actual physical space, too. We move through it as we get up and walk. We can stand in the same physical space we stood in years ago and not be within the same spot in time the way we are within the same spot in physical space.

I believe it's a miracle that I inhabit the same speck of time and space as the man I love. We have been in love since 2003... married since 2015. This work in progress is a study of the exact time and physical space we inhabited when I first saw him.

Through this piece, I'm exploring how my mind makes and keeps memories. I'm recording the few but often revisited visuals my mind recalls from that very short moment. I'm learning about how my mind organizes color, assigns value to simultaneous stimuli and amplifies recurring narratives into memories and my perception of history.

I'm fascinated with using commonplace traditional media such as paper, acrylic paint, colored pencil and glitter paint in my work. I also am interested in finger-painting and in using pure colors. There's something freeing about taking crayons straight from the crayola box and coloring the way I child would by focusing on association and content rather than exact color replication. Working in this way frees me from feeling I must meet public high brow medium standards. With these barriers gone, I can more freely explore my memories and mental color organization.