Roberta Allen
THINKING ABOUT THOUGHT
2014 - 2016
In this series of 100+ image/text draw-ings, I continue to explore how language informs or changes our perception of images. I use this conjunction to probe our interior worlds with more than a hint of humor. Our thoughts determine how we perceive ourselves and the world and determine what we attract to ourselves. But thought remains a mystery. We know that the firing of neurons, their transfer of an electrical pulse to other neurons is what underlies every thought and that combinations of neurons fire in set patterns. But we are not able to "see" what a thought actually is. What attracted me to thought is what we don't know. This freed me to create a context of my own. Within this subjective framework, I present the unverifiable, the impossible, the possible, and what is true. I play with possibilities. This interplay of imaginary neural patterns and mappings combined with text is not intended to illustrate. My intention is that the drawings call to mind internal states in the viewer and encourage introspect- ion. These works have evolved out of my long-standing interest, not only in language, but in psychology, conscious-
ness, spirituality and recently in neuroscience.
Archival ink on archival paper 9" x 6"
Somewhere between the lines, the great truth is hidden. It has rolled under the sofa, and if we could only extend out fingertips a little bit farther, we would have it in our hands.
---Vladimir Nabokov
UNIQUE ARTIST BOOKS 2014-2017
Thinking About Thought
2017
19 inkjet prints on light cream paper, blank white paper between prints
8 1/2" x 5 1/2"
Cream covers, wire bound
Unique
Thinking About Thought
2014-2016
16 original ink drawings on paper
5 3/4" x 4 1/2"
Cream covers, wire bound
Unique
Thinking About Thoughts
2016
8 original ink drawings on graph paper
8 3/4" x 6"
Cream covers, wire bound
Unique
Thinking About Thought
2015, Book 5
6 original ink drawings on paper
8 5/8" x 5 1/2"
Charcoal gray covers,
wire bound, Unique
Thinking About Thought
Book III, 2014
8 original ink drawings on paper
6" x 4 5/8"
Black covers, wire bound
Unique
.Copyright © 2017 Roberta Allen. All rights reserved