Lend a Hand: Part 1 2017

Artist Statement: As a high school student, I developed tendinitis starting in my upper back and shooting down my arms all the way into my hands. As an artist and a color guard member, it was detrimental not to be able to do something as simple as holding a plate long enough to put it in the sink after dinner. Ever since, my hands shake and sometimes hurt but they are so much stronger thanks to physical therapy and my stubbornness not to let anything stop me. However, through this, I have developed a fascination for people’s hands. They tell so much about a person. We often take for granted the way they are able to move when we write, type, text, etc. So I’ve started an ongoing project (originally for an Honor’s College project at EMU) which focuses on portraits of people solely using their hands. These candid photos are how I tend to see people since one of the first things I notice about someone is the way their hands work.