top of page

Signposts

This series developed from my exploratory fusion of handmade paper and writing. In tandem with the materially rich process of making paper, individual words are perceived as creative elements, as design motifs, as resonant utterances and dynamic signs. 
    

          Each Signpost begins with a 3.5 x 5-inch handmade paper. Each paper is embossed in (grade one) Braille and inscribed in lower case text with a synergistic word. These papers are then placed innocuously (and temporarily) in public locations and photographed in situ. They are left in place, that passersby may notice, read, retrieve and / or discard them. 
    

          Initially, I installed and photographed in my immediate vicinity, in everyday and perhaps overlooked public spaces. As personal and professional pursuits took me beyond the region, the project traveled with me, and I continued to seek meaningful locations to post and document. With the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, this work, like so many other aspects of our lives, contracted. At first, I installed in and around my personal space. Subsequently, I worked digitally with found images of the places I had planned to go before travel was restricted.


          Signposts is a compilation of eighteen sequential photographic diptychs. It is presented as a series of mnemonics, emphasizing and supporting our best personal and communal determinations.
 

*23 Wall Street, New York, NY, 1972
Public Domain, National Register of Historic Places; License: CC BY-SA 3.0

**National Mall satellite Image, 2002
Public Domain, U.S. Geological Survey, Department of the Interior/USGS

This project was created with the generous support of a College of Arts & Letters
Scholarly & Creative Activity Award, California State University, Sacramento, CA

bottom of page