In a series of mixed-media drawings, I use matches as a tool to describe the chemistry of change brought about by loss and unheaval. The "Matchwork" grew out of a description of a matchgame in Vladimir Nabokov's Speak, Memory. Matches lend themselves to the language of fragmentation (splinters), suggesting violent upheaval (fire, war), and the shifting of patterns as one life is replaced by another. Though the work has a violent aspect, it is not rooted in destruction or entropy. The tension in the work, as in life, is the potential for upheaval and change. Tiny units of energy that can save a life or kill, matches evoke both the nurturing and the destructive side of human nature. The drawings suggest the possiblity of global interconnectedness and mutual destruction. Themes of upheaval and migration are touched on from my family history, as well as my father's career as a CIA operative. American and Russian history from the Revolutions to the Cold War are revisited and sometimes "matched", particularly our mutual legacy of nuclear arms.
