Artist's Statement

My art addresses the power and mystery of the abstraction that is written language. I create language-like symbols I call Glyphs, which are wholly invented and one-of-a-kind. There is no alphabet and there is no translation. I have made tens of thousands of Glyphs in many mediums. Much of my work is repetitive, rhythmic, and obsessive in its development of multiples and series.

Art, like mathematics, is a symbolic language. It employs metaphor on many levels, creating images and objects that reference ideas or entities either imagined or existing in "the real world." A Glyph is also metaphor, a symbol of a symbol. Glyphs are an expression of the human impulse to make a mark, to leave an impression, to influence, to contribute, to communicate, to accomplish.

Creating, making, constructing:

I have to make things. Every day. A meal, a knitted garment, a painting. I am compelled to transform materials. To change things. To make one thing into another!

I learned to sew soon after I learned to write. For me, stitching and writing arise from the same mysterious source. I use stitches and invented language symbols as parallel abstract forms.

I use a variety of materials. I often explore without a specific destination or configuration in mind. The process is primary; the result is evidence of the particular materials being transformed by the chosen processes.

My work thus tells stories of its own composition: marks on paper, knitting, sewing, weaving, tying, knotting, folding, molding, shaping, layering, attaching, cutting, puncturing, altering and amending. This activity is universal and cross-cultural. It comes to me unbidden; you give it meaning with your looking.

lynne hodgman 913.707.2284