Small Sins 6

I first developed the wool dust on paper medium in 2004 and have been using it ever since, making marks with it in various ways. In more recent series I've employed a lattice pattern as shorthand for our selective awareness of lived realities. Of course we are designed to unconsciously select what we see, what we know and remember in order to spare ourselves what we find too difficult or painful. When it comes to our relationship with the natural world, our tendency to avoid the idea that we’ve played a role in its destruction is dangerous and, I believe, also prevents us from taking even the measures we can still take to protect our natural environment and spare the suffering of other nonhuman animals. This is also how we live in relation to other humans who suffer. The 'small sins' of our everyday carelessness matter because they accumulate. The dust surface suggests the softening of reality to protect our tender hearts. The images themselves are fragments of a whole we can's see. When the camera focuses in too close to the subject it becomes difficult to see what is going on. The result, ironically, is a softening of the image regardless of how serious or difficult the subject may be.