The Body Remembers What Words Cannot

By John Hall

This three-drawing series reimagines film photographs from my early childhood, taken by my mother, capturing moments of being held by her. Using chalk pastel on toned paper, the drawings center hands as symbols of care, structure, and generational labor. Within the context of this call, the gesture of holding speaks to matriarchal resilience and the emotional weight of touch. The act of redrawing these moments explores how familial care is both physically experienced and preserved through memory—how the body remembers what words cannot. These works honor the quiet power of touch as a form of safety, identity, and connection.