IG: @blue_boy_press

What I/You/We Dearly Hold, Share, and Take

We are the accumulation of all the events we have experienced and all the people and things that we have come into contact with. This give and take between humans, the social interactions and information we share and the emotions and empathy we develop for another, is supposed to be an easy and amicable open loop of conversation. For twenty years of my life, engaging in conversation with another, listening to them and sharing with each other was the easiest thing I could do.

In August of 2022, I started to lose my hearing. Everything that I had known about how to listen and share with another was completely overwritten by the new reality I faced. There are times where even if I devote all my energy into listening to someone, I will not understand the words they were saying. I felt robbed of my means to communicate and relate with others. In my thesis, I invite you to experience my world. A space where all you can do is try your hardest to listen and understand everything being said.

I’m tired of always listening. Hear me speak and take from it what you can.
Just like I do.
For you. For we.

Bio

Mason Lee Bator is a printmaker currently pursuing a Bachelors of Fine Arts in Printmaking at the Maine College of Art and Design, with an intended completion date in May 2024. Bator was born in Laurinburg, North Carolina in 2002 and moved to Frederick, Maryland, where he would spend his formative years in the DMV area before eventually moving to Portland, Maine to pursue a BFA.