2026
“Delight – becomes pictorial – When viewed through Pain -” (left) “And have distanced what is behind me for good reasons, / But call any thing back again when I
desire it” (right).
Digital collages. Dissected Instax film, pain relief patch backing, ink. 4 x 6 inches.
Artist Statement
When reading the work of Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman, I continually thought about the visibility of the writing process in their work. Whitman and Dickinson’s poetry transformed dramatically within both their living writing careers as well as following their deaths. Whitman rewrote the same collection of poems many times throughout his lifetime. Editing and feedback were contentious topics for Dickinson, yet a cherished part of her relationship with Sue. For this
project, I took a polaroid photo of a Russian Sage plant outside of a building on my campus. I then took digital photos of the film photograph. In some of these photos I overlaid the semi-translucent backing of a pain relief patch, giving the photo a mint green tint. Additionally, I took the film apart and laid part of the photo’s inner film layer on the outside, casting a pink sheen on the original photo. The collages are all the size of a postcard, as the two poet’s works travelled throughout American history into the present. The quote, “And have distanced what is behind me for good reasons, / But call any thing back again when I desire it” is from Whitman’s “Song of Myself” section 31. “Delight – becomes pictorial – When viewed through Pain -” is the opening of Emily Dickinson’s poem 540 (Franklin edition).