Autobiography: Teeth

Clockwise from top:

The Comparison (and the Wait), The Reminder (and the Culprit), and The Collection (and Its Return), Archival Inkjet Prints & Encaustic on Panel, 2012

It's about loss (as always): the natural process of losing one's baby teeth and the unnatural process of having them returned to me; the natural process of wearing braces and the unnatural process of losing one's teeth through root absorption.

Why encaustics? The surface goes well with the subject matter - enamel coating on teeth and the waxy layer over the photographs. The encaustic wax causes the images to cloud over and they are constantly changing just like the structure of our mouths. The photos are now more fragile and easily scratched. They can't get too hot or too cold. They must be protected.

A few thoughts I had while brainstorming ideas for titles earlier this evening: What do other parents do with the teeth their children lose when they act as the Tooth Fairy? Do they keep them? Do they dispose of them? Do they return them to the original owner thirty years later? Some of these are my brothers and some of them are mine. What should I be doing with our DNA?

Speaking of DNA, the Autobiography series does not lack evidence of my genetic information. It wouldn't be difficult to collect it and tie me to a crime (kidding).