Keep Going (2022)

Ink on Bristol Board

This work was not created for a class, unlike most of my work from this time. This was shown at the 16th Annual Tech Juried Student Competitive Exhibition, Nov 1-29, 2022. Pictured are three instances of my own hand, as I used my own hands for reference,a common nail, and a carpenter's claw-hammer. This work was inspired by the intense, undue stress I was enduring, largely from trying to juggle work, class, and feeding myself in a way that got my tuition paid for each month. Continuing my education felt akin to holding my arm down and driving a nail through my palm, but I had to keep going. This composition is inherently graphic, despite the decision not to portray any gore; this work aims to spark anticipation in a bleak and easy-to-read fashion. The scene is black and white, literally and otherwise. Shadows are solid and heavy, adding weight to the issue. The pointy, barbed nail, ready to tear wood and flesh, hangs supended over a wrinkled, open palm. Once the nail finds its home in the untouched palm, surely the nearby hammer will be the source of its next motion; that's what hammers do, after all.