Today I speak only in pictures

For the duration of this performance, I forbid myself to speak verbally. Instead, all my communication will be done through the creation of images.

 You, dear reader, are responsible for the verve of this piece; it does not exist without you. I request you to kindly provide to me a written sentence, or more. Or even less.
… anything that happens to be crossing your mind at the moment—from grand, philosophically profound queries, to complaints about your last haircut. I, in turn respond to each written interaction, not by speaking, but instead, by creating paintings on site.

Why?
Because I wish to offer to others the opportunity to actively take part in a piece that explores visual art’s relationship to verbal communication.
Because art is a valid and beautiful language in itself—an amazing (albeit poetic, at times abstract) form of communication. It is open, inclusive, international and borderless. How many times, when travelling in a country where English is not spoken, have I stopped to draw communicative images when my accented attempts at speaking have failed?
Because I wish to see verbal ideas take visual from.
And because I love talking to strangers.

 

8 hour projects: "performativity", curated by Darren Miller, 2013
Bowman, Penelec & Megahan Galleries at Allegheny College, Meadville, PA

75 small paintings completed in less than 8 hours: acrylic on wood, each 5.5 x 5.5 in.
Width of installation space: approximately 18 feet