Flashbulb Memories

The monotypes in the series, Flashbulb Memories, explore the relationship between personal and cultural versions of history. The prints represent the fluid impression of memory images that I associate with major historical events of my lifetime. These kinds of memories are also known as flashbulb memories, “memories of the circumstances in which one first learned of a very surprising and consequential event” (Brown and Kulik, 1977).

The images become personalized homages to some of the most significant and idiosyncratic moments of the last four decades, among them the shootings at Kent State in 1970 and the death of Elvis Presley in 1977. In a sense, the depiction of these moments creates a subjective history and visual portrait of the American identity, albeit my own.