ARTIST STATEMENT /

ART (Photo)

Often ideas or solutions come to light in the fog of a topic or the fringe of the subject matter. It’s what one discovers in those moments before realization that intrigue me and inform my practice. My work often reflects the setting of a scene that waivers between the ordinary and eerie intentionally leaving the viewer with unanswered questions.

I prefer to liken my aesthetic proclivities as a visual form of fantastic literature. Authors who can be subtle in their nods to the supernatural, like Jorge Luis Borges or Marcel Aymé, both who have presented a most visceral reality yet delicately skew a basic law of nature that entrance the reader into a world of wonderment and discomfort. This unease stems from an unknowing or a strangeness in the familiar that Freud might call the Unheimliche or uncanny. My work strives to create this fog around the ordinary therefore piquing intrigue as a desire to relieve the discomfort through wanting to grasp the reality or unreality of the representation. 

My art often lends itself to a process that relies partially if not wholly on serendipity. The photographic process is calculable if the user desires. It’s in my interest to create a process in taking photos that can have many unknown variables. Based on the time of day, the type of day, the shutter speed, the f stop, etc. The unanticipated results more often than the calculated inform my process and steer it into new directions. 

The fact that I make art and see it as a priority in my life, is, in itself, a privileged act and I am aware that I have been raised in an environment where creativity was encouraged because all my basic human needs were being met. I am privileged to make art. Through a cultural and contemporary lens my art exists through all I have access to. Regionalism in an artistic context exists but has been quieted by technology. My art is influenced by what I experience on a daily basis since I was a child but it’s indebted to everyone and everything that has been a part of my life from my mother’s careful intentions to the most recent unsolicited ad put in front of me. Borges said, “I am not sure that I exist, actually. I am all the writers that I have read, all the people I have met, all the women that I have loved; all the cities that I have visited”. I am a vessel of the influences and ideas that I absorb. In this globalized world it’s difficult to say where my cultural and contemporary context comes from but I can say, it’s one of privilege.

Photography Artwork (from top to bottom)

Pawtuckaway - Gelatin silver print, overlaid negatives

Peaks - Gelatin Silver print, overlaid negatives

Peaks Camera Obscura - Digital photo

Integrated, Class walk - Digital photo, manipulated, Burkina Faso

Integrated, Jacob - Digital photo, manipulated, Burkina Faso

Pin hole View, Peaks - Digital photo of pin hole projection

Riley, seated - Digital, stereographic photo.