When a 7.9 magnitude earthquake hit Nepal, we were sitting in a car in Kathmandu, feeling the movement, seeing people dash for stability, trying to keep calm, and taking quick stock of our lives. The feeling was surreal at best and terrifying mostly. We were at the mercy of a great natural force that was completely uncontrollable and fierce beyond words. The event humbled me and was an acute reminder to respect this powerful earth we inhabit.
Energy cannot be created nor destroyed, but it shifts, changes form, impacts surrounding elements, and effects our lives in immense and small ways. Entropy is the measure of escaped or dispersed energy. As an earthquake happens, disorder increases, entropy increases, and energy escapes. As the recovery happens, order is restored and loose energy decreases. There is a natural movement by all things toward balance.
These prints are visual representations of small units of stored energy, power packs. They rep-resent the potential of concentrated force. They have energetic moving parts, yet are contained and bound by their borders. Inside the edges are whirls, lines, spots, waves to represent dis-tilled and hindered energy. The earthquake inspired this image of dynamic instability and potential: hot, moving, plates, shifting and creating destruction and massive energy movement by small changes in position. The futility of harnessing such power is at the center of this work.
As we restore order and rebuild, heal, save, and help each other, we are moving toward that balance that creates a sense of well being. We respond to the force. We expand the space for the energy to reach and remove the borders. We accommodate to the force, tread lightly, learn what stays strong and how to react to the changes of the natural world, renew what has been destroyed. The cycle continues…