A few years ago I was talking to a fellow artist and friend about my studio work and my Alphabet of Weapons. He said, “Cynthia, you owe it to this body of work to finish it”. In that moment I absorbed this and once again picked up the process of using the alphabet as a ground for thinking about weapons, playing with meaning and alternate connotations. The Alphabet is a customary structure : it is an idiom that people understand and gives the viewer a frame for considering An Alphabet of Weapons. Working at random through the alphabet I find that many of my choices are double edged, such as “C” is for Charm , an oversized charm bracelet in it’s jewelry box: charm can be warm and real or manipulative. The piece “V” is for Venom is a baroque growth that drips with bile? honey?, sometimes we can’t resist a beautiful thing that draws us in and then poisons us. Last spring, when I knew I would be showing this work, I put a list of my alphabet to date on my refrigerator and many friends offered ideas for the letters which still needed concepts. As a result I have had wonderful moments of conversation which moved the work forward. At a picnic last September I was talking with a young woman who was interested in hearing about the work and she said the most wonderful thing, “This work is about activism, a way for people to think about consciousness”.

I would like to thank and credit John Polak Photography