ARTIST STATEMENT
These paintings share a grid structure and semiotic language, forming a narrative in which shapes or forms function as distinct characters. Through variation and repetition, these forms assert their presence and reflect a yearning to be seen. I create rules to establish structure, then push against them – layering, incising lines, inlaying color, and scraping the surface. In some, a repeated linear pattern intersects the surface, suggesting an additional or alternate structure and highlighting the dichotomy between openness and impenetrability – gestures that speak to both connection and isolation.
As an adoptee, my work mirrors an ongoing exploration of identity and the search for belonging. In deciding what to reveal or conceal, I grapple with both fear and a longing for authentic visibility. The interaction between exposed and obscured layers becomes a metaphor for emotional transparency, reflecting the interplay between vulnerability and resilience.
Themes of erasure and absence are integral to my practice. The marks I make suggest something missing or implied, yet deeply present – a lived experience that resists simplification. This is especially true in the context of personal loss, specifically the decade-long estrangement of one of my children. That rupture renders a part of my identity unseen. Who I was, as a mother in active relationship with that child, no longer shows up in the visible narrative of my life. Society’s discomfort with such experiences often denies space for mourning, acknowledgement, or the symbolic rituals that typically accompany loss. My work seeks to create that space – to hold complexity, to witness, and to honor what remains unseen.
© Deborah Peeples