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Five Military Phonetic Alphabets (A–Z, 1914–present)
2008
Graphite, ink and acrylic on paper
15 x 20 inches
Phonetic alphabets were developed to be pronounced and understood by those who transmit and receive voice messages by radio or telephone regardless of their native language. Used to guide military crafts and personnel in times of war, the words were chosen to ensure intelligibility of voice signals over radio links. I have used only English-language alphabets, including the current NATO alphabet. In the drawing, the five words for each letter are arranged alphabetically within their columns from bottom to top. Within each alphabet, the words are connected across the columns so you can read from A to Z by following this path.
Twelve Collective Nouns for Animals
2008
Cut manila envelope and ink on paper
6 x 9 inches each
The collective nouns for groups of various animals are cut through the face of 12 envelopes. Inside each are cards bearing the name of the individual animal, which can be seen, obscured, through the absent text of the envelope.
What I Was Trying to Say (12 Four-Letter Words)
2008
Graphite on graph paper
9.75 x 7 inches each
These 12 drawings of four-letter words were created by the same four-number combination in predictive text messaging. Some numbers spell certain genres of words, others seem to have coincidental narratives. The words are arranged alphabetically top to bottom and each successive line of text is drawn with a harder graphite pencil, creating a visual fade.
A Collective Vocabulary: Contributed One Minute at a Time
2009
Inkjet print on accordion-fold book
8.5 x 5.5 x .25 inches
Ten artists and writers at the Vermont Studio Center were asked to say only words that started with “A” for one minute while I recorded their efforts. This was repeated for the rest of the alphabet until we had built a “collective vocabulary” of remembered words.