Communication & Trauma                     1997 to 2018

 

Isolating stress comes in many forms and among them is the stress from military conflict.

There have been many words used to describe Post-Traumatic Stress. 


    In the 17th century it was Nostalgia, Homesickness and Estar Roto which means ‘to be broken’.  Soldier’s Heart was the term during the American Civil War and Compensation Sickness shortly thereafter.  The cataloging Victorians called it Neurasthenia/Hysteria. Shell Shock was it's name in World War I and Combat Fatigue in the Second World War.  In 1952, amidst the Korean War, the American Psychiatric Association recognized it as Stress Response Syndrome. The term PTSD was added to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders in 1980.


No matter what its name, it speaks of a place of emotional isolation and an altered or broken mind.  An inevitable end product of war, it is suffered by victor and vanquished alike.  Conflict stress fractures the fabric of communication between people, even long after the conflict has ended.  This breakdown of communication affects not only persons suffering from PTSD, but those around them, family, community, nation, and one must wonder if not humanity as a whole.


    These works speak to the isolation that results from trauma.

Anatomy of a Conversation        1997

Acrylic and Charcoal on Canvas

20” x 32”

There are No Words #1  (Diptych)  2017

Acrylic on Masonite floating panel

15 3/8” x 20 3/4”

There are No Words #2  (Diptych)  2017

Acrylic on Masonite floating panel

15 3/8” x 20 3/4”

There are No Words #3  (Diptych)  2017

Acrylic on Masonite floating panel

15 3/8” x 20 3/4”

There are No Words #4  (Diptych)  2017

Acrylic on Masonite floating panel

15 3/8” x 20 3/4”

There are No Words #5  (Diptych)  2017

Acrylic on Masonite floating panel

15 3/8” x 20 3/4”

There are No Words #6  (Diptych)  2107

Acrylic on Masonite floating panel

15 3/8” x 20 3/4”

There are No Words #7  (Diptych)  2017

Acrylic on Masonite floating panel

15 3/8” x 20 3/4”

There are No Words #8  (Diptych)  2017

Acrylic on Masonite floating panel

15 3/8” x 20 3/4”

There are No Words #9  (Diptych)         2017

Acrylic on Masonite floating panel

24’”x 36 1/2”

Communication is sometimes a thing of delicate balance.  Effective communication requires coherent presentation of one’s own ideas, but also an openness to the ideas of others and an understanding of their ideological conception.  Without this we find ourselves talking past one another, failing to see the other and in turn, failing to be seen.


    Be it through conversation, ritual or object it amazes me that we can so readily accept or understand the thoughts presented within our own particular sphere while being blind to something presented from a different realm.  With this observation as a starting point my art has either made note of similar thoughts across paradigms or exposed the clash of culture.  Within this mix is an investigation of how we see and perceive our worlds.

    In this part of the series, There Are No Words, I use the chair as a metaphor for communication suggesting that chairs addressing one another indicate an attempt at connection and those that face apart lack it.  Sometimes there are no words that can connect one person to another, to be there yet not be seen nor heard.  As time has passed, the rendering of these platforms for exchange have become more and more fractured and dissociated and their occupants remain invisible.

There are No Words #10  (Diptych)        2017

Acrylic on Masonite floating panel

24’”x 36 1/2”

Empty Is        2017

Acrylic on Floating Panel

30” x 22”

Adrift    2017

Acrylic and Graphite on Canvas on Floating Masonite

24” x 18” 1 1/2”

We Will Be Seen    2016 - 2018

Acrylic on Canvas

24” x 32”

Conversation 1  (Diptych)    2016 - 2018

Acrylic on Canvas

24” x 32”

Conversation 2  (Diptych)    2016 - 2018

Acrylic on Canvas

24” x 32”

I Am Here!        2017

Acrylic on Unstretched, Sized Canvas

24” x 18”

Time Deaf        2017        

Acrylic on Fiberglass Cloth

23 1/2” x 18”

Wants and Needs        2016 - 2018

Acrylic on Canvas    (Diptych)

20” x 32”