This project is a visualization of my personal experience with depression. The condition brought on frequent episodes where I felt emotionally and physically out of control.

Unable to “release” myself from these episodes, I waited for the physical limitations of my body to end them. Recounting the affected years, I realize how accustomed I became to depression’s influence; many emotions and feelings belonged to it and not my own personality. After an extended, untreated struggle, a diagnosis brought relief, and the process of unearthing myself from the disease began.

The portrait drawings are created on Dura-Lar, which has been sanded by hand to create a textured, translucent surface. I smear tacky, thick etching ink onto the Dura-Lar with my hands. After the etching ink dries, I add more definition with lithographic crayons, and scrape away highlights with an x-acto knife. Each portrait measures 48″ x 36.”

The sculptures are life size face reliefs which are cast in beeswax from a silicone mold, lit, and photographed in a dark room and printed.The mezzotint prints measure 5″ x 4″ and are printed in editions of 5 on Rives BFK paper.