This charcoal and conte crayon piece, "Nature vs. Nurture" will be showing at the “Nature vs. Nurture” exhibit at The Art Center in Highland Park, Illinois during June 17th to July 30th this year. If you are nearby, check it out! It should be a great show! 😁
I made this one about 7 years ago during a 24 hour art making event in 2015. It was a response to the increased tension and violence in the US and abroad. During 2015 the middle class began its descent, and gun deaths became as common as traffic deaths in the US. We were living in a 600 square foot 3rd story walk up at the time that had a trail of blood smeared on the walls from the ground floor all the way up to the third. I was working 7 jobs just to get by, and there was a sense of dread in the air, but also an odd sense of hope. There appeared to be more rights for women and other minorities on the horizon, gay marriage finally became legal, and the idea of healthcare was really exciting. There was hope that if we fought hard enough, for long enough, something, anything, would make all the hard times worth it, and we would somehow emerge stronger, better people. I worked the full 24 hours on this piece and my ring finger and little finger on my right hand cramped and suffered from numbness for days afterward. I didn’t win that lighthearted 24 hour art making contest, I think something with birds or flowers took home the prize, but I did complete this piece that my husband lovingly refers to as the “evil peen” (it’s meant to be an egg), and I learned that a proper Moltov cocktail needs to be secured with duct tape at the top.
