PROJECTS and INSTALLATIONS

Picking up the Pieces: a suicide prevention project

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Picking up the Pieces was developed in November 2011 when I was volunteering at Harbor View House – a resident facility supporting individuals with mental illness located in San Pedro.

The image of a multi-part jigsaw puzzle first came to my mind because jigsaw puzzles are used as a device to test forms of concentration at mental health facilities. The large-scale of this work makes it highly visible. I envisioned a wall-mounted puzzle with a few missing pieces as a metaphor for aspects of mental states. The interconnectedness of the puzzle pieces highlights the fact that suicide prevention involves multiple individuals reaching out to someone’s aide.

Iconic Imagery: do you get me now?

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My project involves both defining a set of symbols as well as creating a set of symbols for words that we usually don't associate with particular icons. These are worked on by various participants.

The premise for this project began with a discussion on symbols and icons.  I drew the ampersat symbol (@), which all my students understood, which I thought that was intriguing, considering that I thought the house symbol(equilateral triangle on a square) was universal and learned from childhood. I soon began to realize that we are inundated on a daily basis with information containing glyphs, icons and imagery that we barely understand or misinterpret.

Student work

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A selection of student work from courses taught at Los Angeles City College and Mt. San Jacinto College.