Portraits- By Words we Change – Gallery

The details of my library are soft like vision uncorrected and yet there is luminescence in the stacks that hold specific resonance. Certain authors, certain books, burn bright and hold fast in my memory signaling some personal transformation, some change revealed by text. This is not to be confused with learning a lesson offered by the narrative or an infatuation with style, but has more to do with a convergence of personal experience, syntax, and creativity: the image, the reader, the writer, the text, what is made together.

I began this set of portraits so as to continue the dialogue, to find a new way of communicating with an author; to be even closer to the writer; to choose what they see; to allow the text, the moment, and the image to configure new meaning. A new relationship is created in this way, a fresh set of connections, and as these portraits stare out into whatever world they are imagining, we the viewer also create worlds, start conversations, revisit text, and, as we walk away, carry small traces of color back to our own libraries.

These portraits are thank-yous, invitations, and the only way I have been able to rub shoulders with heroes.

Often it seems that the potential for change and transformation is an important part of the significance of marking the New Year, and we look for guides to ignite the gaslights of our lives. It is often a Text that illumines, sends us forward searching.