THE SKIN - MISS YOU SO MUCH

A little background about this piece: I installed this work while I was a graduate student at University of Iowa, in a room reserved for art students to exhibit their works. Each semester for over 20 years, each student artist that installed their work in the room repainted it to fit their exhibition. As a result there were many, many layers of paint on the floor and walls.
I was inspired to create this work by the unexpected loss of my dear friend, and I missed him deeply. My skin missed him deeply. The concrete floor of the room, which had so many layers of paint covering it, was soft enough and the paint layers deep enough that I could carve into the layers of paint with a wood carving blade. I carved "I miss you" in Chinese characters, in a column six times then printed those onto 10 foot long tracing paper and hung them floor to ceiling throughout the room. When I stood back and viewed the room with the 10 foot scrolls hanging I felt like I inhabited the room.