KEPT

Acrylic on raw linen
96 × 48 in. (243.8 × 121.9 cm)
Original handwritten prayer, retained with each work

KEPT is a series of paintings made from handwritten prayers left by strangers and kept with their consent. The prayers are written on paper tags at cross installations in public settings. A tag is kept only when the writer has checked a box agreeing to it. No names are asked for. No attempt is made to identify anyone.

Each painting carries one prayer onto raw linen at architectural scale, reproduced exactly as written. Spelling, spacing, ink, pressure, and hesitation are kept. Nothing is corrected. The hand on the linen is not the artist’s. The original tag stays with the painting as its source and provenance.

The work proceeds as though these words were already received. On the wall, a prayer that would have been gone in weeks is read again, by people the writer will never meet. It does not end. It changes hands.