VOICEMAIL PAINTINGS
This series is based on voicemail messages I have saved since moving back to America. Each painting is a visual representation of language used in the message: the abstracted imagery and lines correspond to a sound wave of this spoken audio. The title references this text - the core meaning of the message - and the number corresponds to the order of messages received.
After my phone was stolen while traveling in South America, I thought about the thief listening to my saved messages and how a person whom I have never met would know intimate details about my life and relationships. I realized my saved voicemails were fragments of my identity or deconstructed self portraits. Whether digital or tangible, I think what we save and why reveals part of our identity that might otherwise remain hidden.
Considering that the concept of this series is identity, I initially painted on mirrors to highlight a reflection of the self. I intentionally worked with a limited and muted color palette to allude to the many gray areas in life and how things are not always in black and white. The initial square format of each work referred to how we view images on social media and the fragmented self-portraits we create online. But as the series (and my concept of it) expanded, I transitioned to include larger canvases.
