"Invitation" is the first work in this series. It explores possibilities for hand to hand exchange and dreams of meeting and travel in this time of social distance and digital promiscuity. It is composed of 33 pieces that give an impression of the Parisian apartment with the yellow curtains where I unwittingly became a long-term resident in the midst of the pandemic. In other times, I might have invited friends, family members and colleagues for dinner, drinks or tea. I could have hosted a housewarming party. En lieu of those invitations I send out pieces of art that register the atmosphere of my new apartment.
I work with paper, inks, tempera, thread : things related to me setting up house, and things that will catch on a fingernail when the recipient opens the envelop. I add carbon paper to smudge fingers, drawing attention to touch. The pieces are casual, impromptu, more like a conversation than a formal letter. I purposefully avoid making the pieces in a rectangular shapes that readily fit in a frame. I wanted to highlight the tactile, the hand to hand,and to include something of my environment and my hand in each piece. To make a piece to send to a particular person implied a certain a hand to hand connection and one on one exchange.
