Second Layer

Inkjet print and mixed media

I grew up surrounded by women and I have always admired the strength, devotion and tenderness of maternal and feminine labor.

I photograph myself and women close to me, nude and on black and white film. They chose to conceal their faces, a decision that became central to the work, echoing the tension between exposure and protection.

Over the photographs I applied drawings using a stencil technique borrowed from the world of tattooing. The images come from small notebooks I carry with me, where I sketch fragments of childhood memory: boats my father taught me to draw, fish from the aquarium the only animal my mother allowed in the house angels, and a phrase my mother always says.

Instead of being absorbed into living skin, the drawings are imprinted on the printed body, ink on paper not flesh.

These marks create a second layer

A layer of protection

Perhaps a layer of exposure

Perhaps both at once