drawing with cracks
These stones rest at the cusp between land and sea on the intersection between two tectonic plates near Bolinas, CA (Coast Miwok land). The mineral structure creates small fissures in the stone that allow sea water from the rising tide to enter.
As the tide recedes and the stones dry, this water evaporates. In its absence, the stone shrinks and cracks. Over time, these fissures widen, allowing the tide to break the stone into smaller and smaller parts until it is barely stone at all.
The entry of water alters the stone’s cohesion, slowly unmaking it from within.
Much like these stones, being tattooed is an act of allowing oneself to crack, making space for images, symbols, and inscriptions to seep into the body. It affirms bodily autonomy as much as it reveals our entanglement; the many selves that compose us, and the ways we are continually made and unmade by one another.
These images are made by isolating the cracks in these stones. I print them out and “draw” with them using my scanner. The resulting images are fluid, unpredictable, and full of the liveliness within the water that shaped them.
This can also be a collaborative process
Bring in a photograph of a crack—found in a stone, a sidewalk, a piece of wood, the handle of your favorite mug, anything that holds the living line of fissure. Alternatively, select one from my library of stones below.
We’ll apply the same method, using your crack as the seed for new forms, animating its infinite pathways. Your crack becomes a living, fluid shape—one that seeps into you, and cracks you in return.
This is an invitation to play where solid form splits, to draw with these cracks and consider the cracks within ourselves, and to be with the many other forms of breakage in this moment which are asking us to open, come undone, and transform.
The flash pieces below are tattoo-ready. Beneath them is a collection of these stones whose cracks we can draw with, and below that a library unedited crack-drawings you can also choose from. All of these live in a physical binder you’re welcome to explore in session, and all pieces can be layered, cropped, modified or otherwise transformed.
Pricing structure: $350 minimum (unless very small) - $50/hour for design process, $150/hour for every tattoo hour after that. Pieces that require more than 5 hours of tattooing will need to be split into 2+ sessions.
