AMIDST THE BRAMBLES is a collection of printed images created through traditional print means, specifically woodcut relief and zinc etchings, which encompass a fragment of an ongoing narrative. Through development of personal symbolism and mythology, I am both studying and processing the ideas of the monomyth and of the process by which wondrous images become the basis upon which we as a society process both individual and collective experiences. Influenced by the historical role played by conventional print illustration as an accompanying visual tool alongside many pieces of writing in the early modern western meta and the unconventional literary history of the graphic novel, AMIDST THE BRAMBLES uses images as literary tools by which to convey a story, however ambiguous, in a form that the reader is able to project their own understanding and emotions. This body of work and its accompanying research is influenced by the philosophies and writings of Søren Kierkegaard, C.S. Lewis, Marcus Aurelius, and Joseph Campbell; as well as the text of the book of Ecclesiastes, and their significance to my own religious upbringing and self-identity. The images of artists such as cartoonist Bill Watterson and engravers Gustave Doré and Albrecht Dürer influence the visual elements within the work. The project's purpose is to draw attention to and emphasize moments of consideration and meditation upon purpose, the dread felt when one feels purposeless, and the feeling of wandering without direction.

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