Tessie Word – “Painful places are silent places.”

With nostalgia and sadness driving much of her work, Tessie Word stands before a community that could suddenly be wiped out. The artist grew up along the coast of Oregon and is familiar with devastating possibilities. Her newest work, Convergence, invites a deeper listening to stories and sounds.

If we believed it would happen, none of us would live here. A woman in the piece reiterates: ” … none of us would live here. …”

Knowing this precipitous geography could be decimated was difficult for the artist as well. Tessie Word expects that allowing something to disarrange you implies an intact consciousness. “Painful places are silent places, but artistry opposes this silence.”

For more detail, visit Earlid: We cannot truly see something until we allow it to disarrange us.

This audio melding of her concepts, words and process for composing Convergence was produced by Joan Schuman in 2015 for Earlid.