Artist Statement
6/19/2014
Before it can ever be the repose for the senses, landscape is the work of the mind. Its scenery is built up as much from strata of memory as from layers of rock. – Simon Schama, Landscape and Memory
My work uses the external landscape to explore the fathomlessly dense cartographies of the mind. My drawings not only respond to my own inability to understand my personal psychology, but to the complex and overstimulating world in which I find myself. At the same time, my drawings are both a form of meditation and a type of escapism, creating an ethereal world into which I hope to also transport the viewer.
In terms of my choice of media as an artist, I will confess that I have a great love for paper. I’m addicted to the risk involved in the media, which comes from the material limitations of the substrate itself. I enjoy the way that a fresh sheet of paper is a vast, infinite space full of possibilities. When I draw I almost always use permanent media. I like not being able to erase at all. I like the fact that I will have to live with perceived mistakes. This process of drawing is to me a metaphor for life itself.
Although my process of using meticulous pen drawing would seem to lend itself to small works, I often work on larger drawings that contain a sculptural element with layers of paper containing drawing information that is cut away to reveal windows into the next image. A dynamic relationship occurs between the two drawings. Multiple spaces, both remembered and imagined, occupy the same space simultaneously as the space we physically inhabit, imitating the experience of navigating through the physical landscape, as new forms are hidden or revealed as the viewer changes position. Shadows which are cast from the cut paper bending from its own weight interlace with drawn forms, making both the incision and the shadow a new kind of mark.
A recent body of photographs captures the dry caves of Peninsular Florida. Inspired both by the Allegory of Plato’s Cave and the story of Alice in Wonderland, the photographer enters in a figurative and literal rabbit hole. Ultimately these photographs explore the idea of perception by exploring the natural landscape. The depicted spaces reflect the way that Truth is revealed or concealed alternately, an idea reinforced by the use of both film photography and Photoshop.
The photographs in the Rabbit Hole series depict claustrophobic, murky spaces. Created using a pinholga camera (which itself, being open at one end, is a tiny cave) and using a painting with light technique, these photographs capture disorienting spaces in which fragmented vignettes emerge from complete darkness, offering mere glimpses into the physical and psychological labyrinth one must navigate ahead.
I am drawn to pinhole process because of its essentialist quality and the dream-like atmosphere it creates. Additionally, I enjoy the element of chance involved in this most primitive form of photography, as the ultimate outcome is both a combination of skill and, hopefully, luck.
Ultimately in my work I chase ideas relating to the relationship between intuition, repetition, permanence, and chance. Additionally, I am deeply interested in using the natural landscape as a vehicle for exploring the various psychological spaces we may inhabit. Landscape, as a subject is an ideal vehicle to capture our human perception, as even in photography the overwhelming amount of detail is impossible to capture. Therefore, with art, we create a shorthand to recount our experiences in time and space.
6/19/2014
Before it can ever be the repose for the senses, landscape is the work of the mind. Its scenery is built up as much from strata of memory as from layers of rock. – Simon Schama, Landscape and Memory
My work uses the external landscape to explore the fathomlessly dense cartographies of the mind. My drawings not only respond to my own inability to understand my personal psychology, but to the complex and overstimulating world in which I find myself. At the same time, my drawings are both a form of meditation and a type of escapism, creating an ethereal world into which I hope to also transport the viewer.
In terms of my choice of media as an artist, I will confess that I have a great love for paper. I’m addicted to the risk involved in the media, which comes from the material limitations of the substrate itself. I enjoy the way that a fresh sheet of paper is a vast, infinite space full of possibilities. When I draw I almost always use permanent media. I like not being able to erase at all. I like the fact that I will have to live with perceived mistakes. This process of drawing is to me a metaphor for life itself.
Although my process of using meticulous pen drawing would seem to lend itself to small works, I often work on larger drawings that contain a sculptural element with layers of paper containing drawing information that is cut away to reveal windows into the next image. A dynamic relationship occurs between the two drawings. Multiple spaces, both remembered and imagined, occupy the same space simultaneously as the space we physically inhabit, imitating the experience of navigating through the physical landscape, as new forms are hidden or revealed as the viewer changes position. Shadows which are cast from the cut paper bending from its own weight interlace with drawn forms, making both the incision and the shadow a new kind of mark.
A recent body of photographs captures the dry caves of Peninsular Florida. Inspired both by the Allegory of Plato’s Cave and the story of Alice in Wonderland, the photographer enters in a figurative and literal rabbit hole. Ultimately these photographs explore the idea of perception by exploring the natural landscape. The depicted spaces reflect the way that Truth is revealed or concealed alternately, an idea reinforced by the use of both film photography and Photoshop.
The photographs in the Rabbit Hole series depict claustrophobic, murky spaces. Created using a pinholga camera (which itself, being open at one end, is a tiny cave) and using a painting with light technique, these photographs capture disorienting spaces in which fragmented vignettes emerge from complete darkness, offering mere glimpses into the physical and psychological labyrinth one must navigate ahead.
I am drawn to pinhole process because of its essentialist quality and the dream-like atmosphere it creates. Additionally, I enjoy the element of chance involved in this most primitive form of photography, as the ultimate outcome is both a combination of skill and, hopefully, luck.
Ultimately in my work I chase ideas relating to the relationship between intuition, repetition, permanence, and chance. Additionally, I am deeply interested in using the natural landscape as a vehicle for exploring the various psychological spaces we may inhabit. Landscape, as a subject is an ideal vehicle to capture our human perception, as even in photography the overwhelming amount of detail is impossible to capture. Therefore, with art, we create a shorthand to recount our experiences in time and space.