Work 22: Wasted Words

I am in a thoughtful mood today, and it has me paging through recent journal entries. Its good that memories both remembered and forgotten can be made tangible in pen and paper. I forgot about this entry, but I recall the sentiment.

Explicitly it is now a matter of confidence. Perhaps it has always been, only now it is so apparent. My voice is not as immediate nor loud as it should be. Therefore I speak in suggestions and speculations, not plans and beliefs. The words are far between and lame by qualification. In letting others speak first I swallow that which sits ready on my lips. A sober tongue is a stagnant tongue. I say all this, and still I am mostly talk. For what little I say, I am more word than action. I get excited about something and I talk it to death. I literally continue to bring it up until it fizzles out. Never happens. An idea put to waste. I am where good ideas go to die.

Work 21: Dolphin Hunting

(I finished this piece a few months back, but its just now going up)

The killing of dolphins is both a source of pride and contention for Japan. Pride because it makes use of the sea and and is considered to be a traditional activity. Contention because most of the world denounces the practice of killing sea mammals. With the increasing influence of the western world upon Japan, the island nation struggles to hold on to its traditions, regardless of legitimacy. This image is simple. It swaps the role of hunter and hunted. If one is to accept the food chain (and most omnivores do), than one must accept the role of prey just as predator. There is no malice in the dolphins attack. It kills just as it is killed.

In communicating this message I tapped into another Japanese tradition, that of woodcutting. The majority of my work is digital, so instead of making a relief image in wood, I used my tablet and erased relief into a solid black layer in Photoshop.