The Past 5 Years | Using Art to Evoke Empathy

This body of work address the ability of drawings to evoke an emotional response and the importance of regularly practicing empathy. This collection of drawings focus on what a person does when they experience loss. Grief affects how they move their body, what they do with their hands, the words they say and how that pain is changing them biologically. As a person experiences a deep emotional trauma, multiple things are happening that are unseen. Their heart becomes weaker, the chemistry in their brain changes, and their muscles strain to do menial tasks all because of their emotional pain. Representational figurative and anatomical drawings work together to fully define and illustrate how pain affects the body. Extensive research on the subject of empathy and its effects generated several different methods to practice empathy and evoke this feeling. This body of work questions how art can be used to help someone become more empathetic as well as the social and personal benefits of empathy.