My research has inspired my art. I love Marlene Dumas’s work because she speaks about being a witness to something painful. She wrote a poem based on her piece, “Evil is Banal,” that struck me: “I have not come to propagate freedom. I have come to show the disease symptoms of my time. I am a good example of everything that is wrong with my time.” She is projecting a helpless manner that exemplifies frustrations she has towards the injustice she is referring to. I can relate to this. I don’t always know where I fall in being a witness to disease. How am I distanced from it? Am I helping or adding? Do I have that responsibility? Marlene Dumas also has a piece called, “The Painter,” that connects with Diane Arbus's photograph, “Child with a toy hand grenade in Central Park” and much of Sally Mann’s work. They are all portraying children as more adult like and guilty of something, which is unusual. This is relevant because I plan on portraying myself with different physical elements of disease. Is someone, who is sick, seen as different when they look sick v.s. when they don’t? How can I show multiple sides of people who experience disease? (from different levels of impact)