Multi-Vocal Artworks
The idea for “multi-vocal" paintings originated while teaching at five youth detention centers throughout the state of Utah. Driving across the desert one day, headed to the most remote center, I was suddenly struck by the question:
That line of inquiry led me to create the first multi-vocal painting. Entitled "Clouds," it was painted by students at those five detention centers with over 200 people from the broader Salt Lake City community, symbolically closing the distance between carceral spaces and the outside world.
I’ve continued to develop multi-vocal paintings as a way to amplify the voices of diverse communities. Each artwork uses strategic design parameters to integrate participants’ wide range of different visual styles into a unified whole.
Multi-vocal paintings celebrate a multiplicity of perspectives, and resist the notion that plurality might be consolidated into a singular view. Each artwork is a visible disruption of the Western world's emphasis on the isolated individual, which I've come to see less as a sign of freedom than a symptom of colonization.
These works were greatly influenced by the beautiful poetic inquiries of M. NourbeSe Philip and Yanara Friedland.
The idea for “multi-vocal" paintings originated while teaching at five youth detention centers throughout the state of Utah. Driving across the desert one day, headed to the most remote center, I was suddenly struck by the question:
Was there a way all of these talented students could collaborate on an artwork, even though they couldn’t be together in the same room?
That line of inquiry led me to create the first multi-vocal painting. Entitled "Clouds," it was painted by students at those five detention centers with over 200 people from the broader Salt Lake City community, symbolically closing the distance between carceral spaces and the outside world.
I’ve continued to develop multi-vocal paintings as a way to amplify the voices of diverse communities. Each artwork uses strategic design parameters to integrate participants’ wide range of different visual styles into a unified whole.
Multi-vocal paintings celebrate a multiplicity of perspectives, and resist the notion that plurality might be consolidated into a singular view. Each artwork is a visible disruption of the Western world's emphasis on the isolated individual, which I've come to see less as a sign of freedom than a symptom of colonization.
These works were greatly influenced by the beautiful poetic inquiries of M. NourbeSe Philip and Yanara Friedland.