I am an artist who uses digital photography, polaroids and mixed media to explore themes of belief, and to challenge notions of how photography can be viewed. For the last three years I have been working on three major figurative projects called "American Goddess," "Tarot Garden," and "Aliens Amongst Us:" All the work started as a reaction against the ubiquitous nature of digital photography and the tendency to consume images too quickly.
1. "American Goddess" explores the idea of how Greek Mythology continues to influence how men view women with the historical male gaze.
2."Tarot Garden " asks the viewer to reflect about our own lives, and explore the idea of how our anxiety about the present can compel us to use rituals to attempt to control or predict the future.
3."Aliens Amongst Us" is an exploration of how people can be viewed as alien or for how they can feel alienated.
My work in "American Goddess" connects back to the Daguerreian Era when photographs were objects and deeply personal and meaningful. My art takes material aspects of these early American photographs and employs strategies such as folding, punching holes and adding three dimensional objects to them. The work can vary from framed photographs, to videos, to mini-instillations, to small and large table top sculptures.
Holes are sometimes punched in the photographs as a reaction to Roy Striker, who in the 1930s as part of the Farm Security Administration would “kill”photos by punching holes in the negatives. This process also acknowledges our human biases and the idea that photography does not show us the whole truth. The folding connects them to 19th century photography cases, and ties them more closely to books, letters and other texts. It also hides the image or part of the image drawing the viewer in and creating a sense of curiosity or mystery in the viewer.
I add objects to the photographs like glass, hat pins, buttons, pearls and wood to disrupt the viewing experience and to acknowledge the spell of the male gaze. Other objects like salt and live Rosemary are added to create a sense of ritual. Glass is sometimes removed from frames or the images themselves are displayed in glass vessels. This makes the images more vulnerable and makes the work more ephemeral.
The most recent sculptures as part of the "Tarot Garden" series, asks the viewer to make sense out of broken images and gives them an opportunity to literally look at photography from different angles and points view. The new sculptures are interactive and connect the viewer to the art both physically and metaphorically.
The last two series, "Tarot Garden" and "Aliens Amongst Us" are collaborations with two other artists Trish Klenow and Be Boggs. The idea of working side by side with another artist on the same concept has changed the way that I make art and I can't imagine working any other way going forward. I always have felt like my figurative work was collaborative with the models, but working with artists takes the work to another level of partnership.
Working with Trish Klenow on "Tarot Garden" and with Be Boggs on "Aliens Amongst Us" has changed my approach to art and my process. It has inserted a level of play, risk taking and discovery in the process and into the work. We all agree that we are creating work that is not simply a sum of two art styles, but is indeed a third new thing that we would not have created on our own.
Finally, as a straight, white , male artist in my 50's, working with women of different sexual orientations, geographic and cultural backgrounds and from different artistic disciplines continues to change the way that I see, the way I think about art and the way I view the world.
My most recent work involves layering photographs to play with how space and time shape beliefs. I am taking more landscapes and moving away from models instead working with folks that I know including local artists and my students.
