Yvonne Pepin-Wakefield
FACING IT
IMAGE DESCRIPTION: This black-on-beige drawing is staged under powerlines and against the dark fir trees in the background. The foreground shows a field with gravestones, a path lined with the stumps of trees, and a girl with light hair and her back to the viewer. The girl is sunk to the waist in a crack in the road. Her right shoulder is nearly bisected by a dark strip of film or dark set of tracks which spirals off on the left side of the picture. A few flowers decorate the picture's bottom left corner.
SHACKLED
IMAGE DESCRIPTION: This is a black-on-gray mechanical drawing with deep shadows. It shows a street lined by featureless buildings and a sky with clouds. A human foot and lower leg (in a tennis show) stand in the center of the street. The lower leg is topped by a human breast with nipple toward the sky. Its ankle is shackled to an alarm clock and to a pocket watch with a blank face. A large crack runs through the street from the front left to the back right of the picture.
VULNERABLE
IMAGE DESCRIPTION: This initially appears to be a drawing of the Venus de Milo statue. However, this female body has un-styled hair, saggier breasts, and cellulite. A large and jagged scar runs from her sternum to her groin. Marble-colored fabric shows that she is removing a jacket, and that the jacket still happens to cover her elbows and lower arms. Her arms do not necessarily end at or near the shoulder. A set of five toes (or five fingers) emerges from her right cheek as if the toes are tears.
Artist statement: When I was 18 years-old, (in 1975) I built a log cabin in the wilderness and lived there alone. Nearly a year later, I returned to civilization, attending a college in a university town. The transition took its toll on my psyche and physical body. These are the images I created at that time which reflect the conflict, the tearing from the natural world and entering a world controlled by technology. They were done with Rapidograph pens and ink brush and are part of a larger portfolio depicting this time of physical and emotional transition. “Shackled,” depicts my feelings of being trapped by time constraints and architecture during my first year of junior college in a major city. “Vulnerable,” illustrates my feelings about a predatory relationship I was in and how my hands were tied in trying to move on. “Facing It,” illustrates the transition of leaving the wilderness lifestyle.