What influences me most are the overlooked, ignored, and forgotten elements of life, moments and people taken for granted in our hyper-active society. Using multiple media, from charcoal to photography to installation, I provide an intimate atmosphere for reflection, discussion, and ultimately, change.

My current series of work, Worth Remembering, is based on my experiences volunteering at a nursing home. In a society that cuts itself off from it’s elders, that treats age as a disease to be fought at any cost, it is difficult to imagine a time when older generations were respected, cherished, and listened to. This body of work exists because I saw the importance of sitting together, of listening.

Each work in this series is based on the words spoken to me by people I’ve met, residents of nursing homes and assisted living facilities. Through my interviewing, I was taught the lessons of life as told by seven women. Memories came clearer to some than to others. What affected me most were not the things forgotten, but what was held on to most tightly. The charcoal portraits drawn for this series are based on the interviewee’s strongest memory, a defining characteristic or experience.

What in our lives is truly worth remembering? I find it frustrating yet intriguing that no matter how hard I try, I cannot control what memories will stay with me for the rest of my life. When the mind is weathered by time and age, when your choices have been narrowed for you, when all other memories and faces have faded away, what will remain? Will anyone take the time to listen?