“Who are we, but a collection of stories someone has told us about ourselves”
For WW12 I am exploring language, place, body and spirit. I am drawing inspiration from two artists: Portuguese artist, Helena De Almeida and American artist, Barbara Kruger. Helena De Almeida uses her body as her canvas, and she identifies herself with the being of her work. This emotional commitment to the making her work is what I aspire to most in my own. Barbara Kruger, like me grew up in Newark, her work dissects culture, and she uses a combination of imagery and text to challenge the viewer. My focus will be on the duality of language, of my Luso-American identity and my body. I want to bring together two disciplines, photography and drawing. My canvases are a combination of personal x-rays and self-portraits. My drawing tool is a needle and embroidery thread which I will use to highlight text and imagery within the canvases.
