Home

Artwork

STATEMENT

My work references early botanical and medical images, as well as contemporary scientific imaging such as x-rays and scans. The cameraless techniques I use, such as the photogram process, are associated with the early stages of photographic exploration and invention. It is this time of wonder at the possibilities of photography and an alternative way of recording the world that I want to recall.

Many of my images focus on the imperfection and impermanence inherent in Nature and natural processes, both out in the world and within our own human bodies. The ideal of perfection as a natural unchanging state is a myth; growth and decay are always occurring, often simultaneously. Images from the series “Flowers and Things” as well as from “Repair” reflect these natural cycles and our attempts to heal and fix, or perhaps interfere with them.

Other images deal with the idea of allowing chance and process to dictate the final form of a work. “Chemical Landscapes” is a series of 16 x 20 inch photograms that pares the photographic process down to two of its essential components (chemicals and paper), highlighting the nature and uses of photography itself: the illusion photography offers as reality, the desire to capture a moment and the manufacturing of memory.

“Simultaneous Translation” is a photo-collage made from 48 unique c-prints of both found objects (such as plants, salt, dirt, glass marbles, newspaper clippings) and objects I have made myself (sewing and drawing on paper). The dual lines reference two voices or lines of writing that record the effort of understanding an experience and trying to give it form or a name. I want the images to seem both familiar and strange, exploring the line between abstraction and representation, and for viewers to experience that pre-verbal place of confusion and discovery.

“Subtle Body” is also a series of photo-collages made from unique c-prints. The concept of a subtle body, an energetic body that all sentient beings possess to varying degrees, is a common philosophical element in many traditions. It refers to emotional, mental and spiritual aspects which exist beyond the physical body, but still influence it. Like all of my work, these constructions refer to the natural world in the broadest sense: the energy and processes that are always taking place whether we are aware of them or not.