Artist Statement

My digital images have a basis in a painterly tradition, a tradition of art making built from my own background in the study of composition, color theory and the handling of subjects.  I turned from this practice of painting with canvas and brush years ago to pursue digital imagery.  Armed with a digital camera, I have become a collector of images, not always knowing what the image will become once it is in the mainframe, but saving it because something in it is visually worthwhile.  The final image develops through the process of creativity and the intersection of these found visual elements.  It is in the process of sorting and layering these various images that my work develops.  I don’t begin with a preconceived notion of a statement or a direction.  The images lead me as objects and images are added until the work seems right.

I prefer to work with tableaus, more so than themes.  Each piece usually begins with a previously collected landscape or interior scene, and through the addition of images from my own digital archives, figures and objects, the artwork begins to evolve.  Through a process of layering not only images, but thoughts and personal symbols, I attempt to take the image beyond the typical piecemeal aspect of cut-and-paste found in most computer-based art, avoiding a simple overlapping montage of images to develop a more cohesive painterly vision.  The scenes and objects must occupy the same space both visually and thematically.  This is achieved through the use of a limited palette and attention to the consistency of light sources, focus, and the scale and proportion of forms.

Though inherently surreal in nature, surrealism is not a goal but a byproduct of the symbolism that is inherent in each piece.  This symbolism, though often personal in nature, is sometimes based upon classic mythology as in my Mythological Portrait series.  It can, however, come from the technology used to create the artworks, as in my Digital Communication series or in the Alternate Head images, where personal identities have been taken away due to the interpersonal nature of the times.

The symbolism can sometimes be as self-explanatory as doors.  However, all of the works have a visual unity and consistency through repeating motifs.

These motifs are:

•        Checkered floors, a visual linear element often leading to infinity and creating an open form.  Besides providing visual texture through patterns the checkered floor gives the work a sense of depth extending beyond the theatrical setting inherent in some of the pieces.  The checkerboard, like its namesake, also provides the notion of a game afoot; however the game is one of visual unity.

•        Wings are representative of more than simple flights of fancy.  Insect wings have become a favorite of mine for their diaphanous qualities.  This gauze-like translucency allows for views of and through their branch-like supports adding a linear quality to the work.

•        Bare trees are often found in the works as well.  Stripped of their leaves in winter, the spindly-limbed torsos of the trees limbs create more linear paths to counter the solidity created by a strong use of a limited palette and intense areas of patterns and hue.

•        Headless figures and alternate heads for human figures become truncated forms not unlike the bare trees.  These depersonalized humans haunt the tableaus more than inhabit them, but they do provide a much needed human presence.

•        Chairs often make an appearance as if begging for a sitter, or simply to provide a pedestal for the human elements, but more often than not they function as the antithesis of wings.

These linear pathways, directions of limbs, the curvature of horns or paths implied by checkerboard floors may also be found in the form of circuit boards or in the paths of text as the viewer reads it from point A to point B.  Text is a linear path of a more forceful nature as in calligraphy.  This calligraphy has most recently found its way onto the faces of figures in the works.

Motifs aside, the human figure or evidence of its presence is a constant in the pieces, even when the work is less about the figure and more about the objects surrounding or intersecting with it.  This human element creates a sense of a narrative quality, but I leave the narrative open to the viewer.

This open narrative is important to me.  I strive to prevent each piece from becoming overly stated.  Thus the work provides another pathway, a pathway of thought where the viewer brings their own experiences to the piece and develops their own thematic elements for the players and props I have presented in the tableau.