My work for this semester is weighted with heavy issues and hard to swallow topics. These issues include mental health and confronting the status quo. My inspiration comes from the Simon and Garfunkel song “The sound of silence” as covered by the group Disturbed. Focusing on one line, in particular, I have conveyed the pieces’ meaning through printmaking. This line is  “Fools say I you do not know, silence like a cancer grows.” The song speaks about depression and how people seek comfort as a means to ignore their depression. “Silence like a cancer grows” refers to two fundamental aspects of recovery. The first being that depression, when ignored, does not get better. The second aspect is that once recovering, it is effortless to slip back into depression. The sadness is comforting. It drapes over your shoulders like a well-worn blanket. It is familiar in all the right ways, and that is when depression becomes truly dangerous. It becomes almost impossible to escape; it is beautiful, comfortable torture. Silence is analogous to depression in the song. Silence is the loudest sound there is, all-encompassing and suffocating. 

These aspects are expressed through my process of creating work. “Silence like a cancer grows” is made with a reductive mezzotint process. Starting with an unadulterated black form, the ink is removed, strategically revealing the paper’s color. The stark white of the masa paper begins as a surprising comfort. The lines are relaxing. Until they start to grow wildly out of control, taking over the image until there is very little of the image left. This is reminiscent of allowing depression to grow and take over, whether willing or unwilling. Depression, when ignored, will never get better. It is always growing, changing, and adapting. It creeps into your mind and settles into every available crevice to fester and grow. This idea is why I chose a mezzotint. Mezzotints start as a flat black plane, Ink is then gradually removed to reveal the paper’s tone. While, in theory, the act of eliminating ink is the opposite to my previous analogy, in practice, it showcases the analogy beautifully. The paper’s color slowly but surely overtakes the print until there is very little ink left to the image. The paper’s tone can be seen as silence, something that, like depression, can be suffocating if it goes on for long enough. Silence is the loudest sound there is. It is unlike anything one could imagine until it is experienced first hand.

Silence Like a Cancer Grows, phase 1- Lithograph, Mezzotint on Masa, 18x14in

Silence Like a Cancer Grows, phase 2- Lithograph, Mezzotint on Masa, 18x14in

Silence Like a Cancer Grows, phase 3- Lithograph, Mezzotint on Masa, 18x14in

Silence Like a Cancer Grows, phase 4- Lithograph, Mezzotint on Masa, 18x14in

Silence Like a Cancer Grows, phase 5- Lithograph, Mezzotint on Masa, 18x14in