"Defining Acts" is the title I gave this suite of nine small figures, because each figure originated as an identically neutral image that I copied and cut out. Just as the lives of people are defined by their actions, each figure became unique through the act of its burning. Thus the formative "life" of each figure existed in the short span of its destruction. The burned image on the paper is merely a distorted record of that life.

Each figure in this suite left one unburned piece remaining, which I collaged next to the image. The remaining ashes were collected and stored in individual urns.