Leaving a Mark

Sometimes things take a long time to germinate. This pieces are about that process.

In May 2017, I was talking with my friend Divyam and we wanted to explore using an earth tone palette since neither of us where particularly drawn to brown. I broke out all my siennas and umbers. She and I had a blast for #homemadecavepainting week. And then I recapped all of that for the Season of Seasons at Get Messy in December.

Once I’d studied a bit on cave painting, it was a natural progression to think about how I leave my mark on this world. I’ve thought of it often in the months since then. I traveled to Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah this past spring and got to see petroglyphs up close. I loved thinking about those ancient artists and the marks they chose to leave as travel and eating signage but also as mark making for mark making’s sake. And over this past year I’ve developed a connection to these artists and their work. For artists, leaving your mark on the world is a literal, tangible mark of some kind, whether that is a handprint on a rock or a painting you can buy and hang in your house.

Combine this with the current political climate that seems intent on stifling any sort of voice that is isn’t an old, white, straight dude and I’m thinking about how I’m leaving my mark.

These paintings were born from this.