Laughing/Crying (2004), Razor (2004)

I began these pencil crayon illustrations in 2004 for my HANDS serties for my AP Art portfolio.
For this series I took photos of myself, my friends, and family with their hands in different positions representing various emotional states and social gestures. In HANDS, I wanted to explore the emotive body language of hands and how we use them as social gestures and symbols.

I remain fascinated by hands. My own history of severe psoriatic arthritis has changed my my hands significantly as well as my relationship with my own hands and how I depict them and others.

Razor (2004) was exhibited as a port of IKOUII’s Online Art Exhibition “Without Labels” (June 2021).