I have been working in an exploratory manner, taking marks back and forth through different processes, incorporating a variety of materials. As I reuse, rework, and re-appropriate, some marks are eroded, fragmented or lost whilst others evolve to take their place. I may ink and print, photograph, overlay images, photograph again, laser engrave one image onto another and so on. Concealing and revealing, eroding and depositing, I create palimpsests; something bearing traces of an earlier form.
As I work, I am reminded of Edmond Locard’s principle, 'Every contact leaves a trace', upon which forensic science is founded. He proposed that when two surfaces come into contact, each will leave a trace upon the other. For instance, someone breaking into a property may retain tiny fragments of glass on their clothing whilst leaving fibres and fingerprints on the broken pane. Locard was concerned with physical contacts but I extend this to more ethereal, social, psychological and intellectual traces. My life is changed moment by moment by every thought and encounter, by people I meet and even those I don't. I am constantly evolving and will never again be exactly the same person as I am in this present instant. And even this present instant has already gone.
