Touch inspired by Diane Ackerman

Touch, inspired by Diane Ackerman. 

After reading the touch chapter in A Natural History of the Senses, I had to filter through all of the endless thoughts I had to find what I wanted to replicate through art. The first thing my mind went to, was pain, since in the sequence of the book Ackerman covers that first. 

"Pain was the price one paid for not being morally perfect. Pain was a self-affliction brought about by sexual repression. Pain was dished out by vengeful gods, or was the result of falling out of harmony with nature."

 Pain is something that many people can have a complicated relationship with. Without it, everything is meaningless. Either it makes the suffering endless, or it stimulates you enough to get by. In my past I have followed the latter choice, but not without harboring what is left of it now. Back then, I remembered pain as a wave. It hits you and then takes control. This is allot like the idea of "seeing red" in rage, but it goes beyond black out anger. When you black out in rage, you don't feel the pain you wanted so badly.


Beyond pain, when it comes to touch, is the physical contact in general. We often forget about how much a sense affects our everyday lives.

"Despite the fact that we are territorial creatures who move through the world like small principalities, contact warms us even without knowing it. It probably reminds us of that time, long before deadlines and banks, where our mothers cradled us and we were enthralled and felt perfectly lovable. "

Touch is a reminder of love, and its the simplest kind there is. As a person that interacts through touch everyday, I thought about how much they mean to me. Then, Vader decided that he wanted to sit on the keyboard. Then it hit me: He needs my touch, just as much as he needs food and water. Even before I adopted Vader, I visited him just to stroke his fur and scratch him behind the ears. I took him home the day his sister left, and in sadness he called out and demanded my touch. He needed me in that time, and now I need his touch as well. Nights with him by my side are easier. Without Vader, I would not remember love.