Artists Registry

Artist's Statement:

Two weeks after the 9/11 terrorist attack on the World Trade center my husband and I parked on Canal Street in Manhattan, the Southernmost street permitted for cars by Security Officers, and walked down to Lafayette and Liberty where , behind taped-off areas, we were able to view the devastation. The air smelled of death, a strange silence pervaded in spite of the on-site workers and machinery. The winds had moved ashes around, but glass front stores displayed several inches of white dust on all objects. As a New Jersey artist, close the Manhattan, I needed sketches for developing honest paintings I felt compelled to begin. These works are my struggle to look into the face of shock, anguish, rage, and helplessness as well as the courage of rescue and determination to recover.

My paintings are springboards for viewers to interpret and realize their own personal perceptions. These paintings are correlates to internal feelings as well as records of an historical event never to be forgotten.
dorothy DIERKS hourihan