Annual Rings

Paper, photographs, cardstock, book and magazine pages on board. 36″× 48″/ 2020 - ongoing

Various flat and paper materials I’ve collected are cut and reconfigured into concentric rings, resembling a cross-section of a tree. Each ring represents a year of my life, with materials and information relevant to that time, placed chronologically from the center outward. Year 0 - a photograph of stars (we come from stardust), Year 1 - my birth certificate, Year 2 - a photomontage of hands, Year 3 - a drawing made by my 3-year-old neighbor, and so on.

Other materials used: Band-aids, dollar bill, gold foil, MAD magazine, Batman comic, pictures of clouds, rainbows, the moon, the sun, the planet Saturn, insects, snakes, Sunday comics, word search puzzle, childhood drawings, sketchbook pages, drawings from art school, movie tickets, CD jackets, art history images, postcards, paint swatches, New York City subway map, coastal map of Maine, used coffee filters, museum tickets, concert tickets, magazine covers, horoscopes, newspaper dates, and fortune cookie fortunes.