Katie
Indra’s Net (prototype), 2014, acrylic, swiss clips, backing board, bristol board, graphite, & wire, about 4′ x 4′.
“A human being has not only a body but also a face. A face cannot be grafted or interchanged. A face is a message, a face speaks, often unbeknown to the person. Is not the human face a living mixture of mystery and meaning? We are all able to see it, and are unable to describe it. Is it not a strange marvel that among so many hundreds of millions of faces, no two faces are alike? The most exposed part of the body, the best known, it is the least describable, a synonym for an incarnation of uniqueness. Can we look at a face as if it were commonplace?” – Abraham Joshua Heschel, Who Is Man?
Indra’s Net began in mid-January of 2014 and will continue until there are at least 225 portraits to comprise it. I will collect 4” x 4” graphite portraits I draw of friends, family, community members, and
others whose lives has brushed mine through this time.
The Indra’s Net Portrait Project is both a celebration of the incredible beauty and uniqueness of each individual and of the
interconnectedness of all of our individualities…not to mention the ramifications thereof. If in each
person there is both an infinite individuality and a reflection of oneself and the rest of the world, this
puts both the world, oneself, and all those each individual meets in a whole different perspective.
Indra’s net is an ancient Hindu (later, Buddhist) metaphor for the interrelatedness of all phenomena.
Imagine a net stretching out in all directions to infinity: in each meeting place between one strand and
the next there is a jewel in which you can see reflected every other jewel. In this way, each individual is
drawn and framed alone, yet they are all woven together into one expanding net.
Here are a few of the jewels in my subsection:
