Hollow Words & Empty Phrases

Hollow Words and Empty Phrases, examines the isolating effects of mental illness and the human response to those who are suffering.

Expressions of pain can repeatedly be silenced beneath the weight of phrases like, “Everything happens for a reason” or “God never gives you more than you can handle”.

Many times, we fail to realize that these phrases are actually creating a barrier to sincere interactions and genuine healing… platitudes in general, are used to suppress unease, but can be viewed as trite and meaningless. For many years, my husband has dealt with mental illness that I was compounding by using the hollow words, “Hang in there.” When I realized that I was leaving him out of the conversation, that I was losing him, I truly began to understand that deep issues required more than words alone.

In 2018, I had seen a shift when my step-father lost his battle with cancer and my father passed away 10 months later in 2019, from complications due to illness.  Those phrases were now being aimed at me, and my reaction to being an instigator and a receiver has been incorporated into my methods. 

Printmaking is a link between the process and the suffering. This work became a gathering of personal items, to represent pain as a whole. The carving away of the wood, changing what was once pristine, and sending that wood through the immense pressure of the press, became ritualistic for me.  The repetition of imagery is interconnected with the repetition of words… it all becomes echoes that spread like the cancer cells printed on the clothing in this piece.

Empty platitudes referenced in this body of work-

Hang in There

Everything Happens for a Reason

If You Just Try Hard Enough

They’re in a Better Place Now

God Never Gives You More Than You Can Handle

Look on the Brightside

If You Just Have Enough Faith

2018/2021