Deborah DuPont

Remembering the Unforgettable

 

There are moments in our past—both individual and our collective past—that, when they cross the chaos of our multitasking minds, transport us back to another time and place. Sometimes these fragments are trivial. Yet other times they are formative, so full of emotion and feeling you wonder how you could have ever allowed them to fade. Yet they did, slipping just slightly out of place from your present frame of mind. 

 

But memories, like dreams, have a smoky, elusive quality. They have presence but are not present. Undeniable yet somehow intangible.

 

To create this dreamlike quality, I create using layers of text, paint, ephemera, old photographs and printmaking.  Starting with discarded wood panels using found wood salvaged from Habitat for Humanity and using discarded household paint, what would be disregarded, forgotten, is given new life.

 

All elements carefully choreographed, the pieces have a rich, evocative feel, much like walls in an old house, fresh pictures pasted over shadows of previous pattern.

 

Recreating a fleeting moment and relating it to a modern experience, I hope to resonate with you, the viewer.  History and memory linger, giving permanence to something so impermanent.