Todd Camplin

My work from 2010 to 2021 is about abstracting text into objects/images. I start with the text because words have always mystified me. I read some words backward, drop prefixes and suffixes, plus I read a few letters backward. So, for me to read anything, I must approach a text by the process of repetition. After I have read a text a few times, the meaning changes; I can clear up visual impairments through repeating the reading. Something similar happens with my artwork. When I start with a text, those words have a meaning, but after my process of repetition, the text becomes an object/image with a new and truer meaning. The truth of a word or text goes beyond our language's ability to illuminate us. St.Thomas Aquinas marked out the word 'being' to show that language is not fully sufficient in explaining the truth of a word like 'being.' My work essentially marks out text through abstraction. My abstract objects/images become the unsayable truth of any text.

My work from 2022 to the present explores endangered and extinct languages. This series of artworks features languages that have few or no native speakers. These works use an invented script or letters from an existing alphabet. I began this series with cool colors and inventive script. The Asemic Art movement influences me. I also used abstract minimal shapes. These shapes could refer to political maps. 

This show also features my reinterpretation of poems by two Centenary College students into an abstract work. My source material for my drawings often comes from poems, greeting cards, and internet rabbit holes I find myself following.