Connecting Hands

(2017) acrylic, watercolor, gouache, ink, metal leaf, resin, glitter, plastic on wood, 30"x20"

2014, acrylic, watercolor, gouache, metal leaf, pencil, ink on paper, 30”x22”, photo credit: Dan Kvitka

2012, acrylic on canvas, 16"x12

2014, acrylic, watercolor, gouache, metal leaf, pencil, ink on paper, 22”x30” photo credit: Dan Kvitka Seattle Public Utilities Portable Works Collection

2013, acrylic, watercolor, gouache, metal leaf, pencil, ink on paper, 22”x30”, photo credit: Dan Kvitka

2013, acrylic, watercolor, gouache, metal leaf, pencil, ink on paper, 22”x30”, Google Collection, Cambridge MA, photo credit: Dan Kvitka

2012, acrylic on canvas, 20"x16"
This series of paintings and drawings responded to a universal human phenomenon -- a small child at ages 2, 3, and 4, throwing herself into the substrate -- paper, sidewalk, and drawing with raw energy and constant exploration. The saying is old as the sea, that children grow up too fast. This became my lament. I wanted to hold onto my little one just a little bit longer. I held on through drawing and learning from her young hand. I began tracing and retracing her drawings into mine, and incorporating them onto the substrate with the patterns and motifs of our ancestors. In these drawings, all of our hands are connected together.