Perception of the physical world is changed by memory of the past. The memories I made with friends and lovers appear as ghosts, brought to mind by specific locations. These ghosts are often people who have left my life; they have faded away on ambiguous terms, lost touch or moved away. The places these memories inhabit often remain the same, but the people are no longer physically there. The moments we shared together play like a movie across my vision as I look around a familiar place. All the past versions of myself and all the people I shared that time with appear before me, whether at a table in the corner of a café, on the grassy trails of a nature park, or in a local bookstore.
In my paintings and drawings, I depict my memories as ghosts, inhabiting the placeswhere these moments happened. The ghosts appear as overlaid white contours or voidshapes on paper. These contours radiate into the environment or exist contained in theshape of a person, representing the ephemeral, intangible aspects of memory. Mypaintings show the ghosts occupying the same space as me. To create these works, Ivisited the places myself and relived the memories in real time. So, it is the me of thepresent who visits the haunted space, experiencing the visions, the spirits left behind,and all the feelings that come with them. I am both among the ghosts and removedfrom them. My drawings, however, put me outside of the scene, as a spectator, relivingthe moment as if viewing a photo. In all of my works, the ghosts exist on their own plane, presumably unbothered by my presence, even though I am lost in nostalgia forthe moments that will never be recreated in the same way again.
Artist Statement by Lindsay Lennon Picht
