Graphite on rag paper, 2010.
42 x 31"

The broken clay tablets I reference in these drawings come from the ancient Mesopotamian library of Ashurbanipal in Nineveh (present-day Iraq). They are believed to be the oldest examples of written communication; the products of an ancient awareness of mortality and perhaps a desire on the part of the tablets’ creators to make an impression that would outlive themselves. The fragments I cite in this series of drawings depict historical occurrences as well as shards of what is believed to be the "Epic of Gilgamesh", the earliest depiction of the quest for immortality.