Senescence Series: Hollow Memories

As a young boy, I remember helping my grandpa - Pops, as we called him, collect and harvest walnuts around our home. The pungent odor and the indelible black stains on my hands created lasting memories that have stayed with me throughout my life.

Over the past several years, I’ve continued the annual practice he taught me. Occasionally, I harvest the nuts to produce my own walnut ink, which I use in my artwork. Through this process, I began to notice the unique characteristics of the walnut shells, their distinct and individual internal structures fascinated me.

It was during this same period that my mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease . In the years that followed, two of my sisters and my mother-in-law shared the same fate. The lifeless stare in their eyes reminded me of the emptiness within the walnut shells. Hollow, void of life, and eerily still, the shells became a striking metaphor for how we age and begin to lose our faculties, especially when afflicted with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.

This metaphor is the foundation of my drawing studies. The walnut shell, once a vessel of life, now stands as a symbol of memory lost, identity faded, and the quiet erosion of self. Each specimen is drawn and rendered at the average size of a humans brain. The following represents the first volume of investigative drawings I have created in response to this journey. I plan to continue this act of remembrance and reflection, until I myself depart this earth.