This drawing series is inspired from the collection of medical photographs from Dr. Ikkaku Ochi. They photographically catalogue early 1900 Japanese disease and disfigurement from the town of Hiroshima. As the camera is objective, scientific and anonymous, I was inspired to reinterpret these images as a more individual, non-objective and experiential encounter.

Initially, we struggle to place these characters in context. It is only through the their dress, race and facial expression that we can begin identification. These drawings beg the question of what might have caused these injuries? Is it some horrible accident, warfare, or birth defect? It is these questions that tap into our own deepest fears. This is an undertone of experience to be wrestled with on a very personal level.

Though this veil of questions I intend to highlight the vulnerability and strength of these anonymous people. In essence I aim to make the general, specific and personal. Through a highly rendered, and at times, rough honed modeled form; I focus on the gaze of the figure; A personal connection between subject and participant; a human connection, a human commiseration. It is not my goal for these drawing to be of the abject; rather, I aim to move through that layer into a more universal and personal questioning.