Seep/sopping
See Gallery Baird for interviews and more info on this series of work.
A few years ago, I bought a frame that had multiple openings and a standard printed show of a family running around doing family-like things on what seemed like a family vacation in a family-like environment. I couldn't help but investigate the framing of expected perfection: mother and son, father and daughter, mother with children, husband and wife, daddy's girl, mama's boy, white, clean cut, smiles, white teeth, blonde, thin, heteronormative, monogamous.
Younger Me would have been envious of the implied connection modeled in these images due to the shaky foundation my given family has teetered on for a few generations. Any form of communication or connection was something that was either limited or incredibly difficult due to generational differences and conflict, with the exception of a few relatives. Among those few was my Grampa Jim: a communications officer in the US Navy during the Korean and Vietnam wars and a gentle giant; solid, supportive and carried with him an infectious sense of curiosity and humor. Current Me has found solace and security in the alternative familial structures that I and many others have chosen for ourselves. These structures yield an abundance of connection, acceptance and love that I never imagined feeling.
The time I spend connecting with loved ones is the most precious and sometimes overwhelming part of my life. The myriad ways in which they communicate saturate every fiber of my being. I often feel like a super extra absorbent sponge, soaking up sweet phrases, touch and kind moments. The work I make is a wringing out that is a record of one of those moments in time. The precise lines of the same Morse code that my grandfather used in Navy communications ensure an international understanding while the gouache creates a balance as it leaks into that precision, offering a looseness that reflects the fluidity of human relationships. Sharp, stark white rectangles mirror the rigid societal expectations of family while the watercolor and gouache drip and puddle in unexpected ways. In other drawings, a line is laid down and the water washes out the rigidity of objects and bodies; we are constantly shifting, responding, changing.
In this past year, as millions of others experienced, the proximity between myself and loved ones has been a source of pain and frustration, though it has also brought a deep sense of healing and strong bonds with people that I did not expect. I hope that you have found some balance between the two and thank you for opening yourself to the work.
-DMP
