Bodies of work

Changing echos

Memory is subjective—it is affected by who is viewing, and in how we remember. It is intangible, and therefore changeable. Memory is subject to how each individual or mechanical representation captures a particular point in time, generating an echo of the original event—a memory. These exist only in the mind, but in some ways we also attach them to particular objects—a scent, or a keepsake that has personal meaning. This echo is what intrigues me at present. Because I am a printmaker and a photographer, I have been using the camera as an alternate means of recording objects and as a drawing tool. Some drawings have been informed by photos, while others are informed by recollection alone. The camera records an ephemeral truth of the photographic word, but does not see things the way the human eye does. I feel further manipulation of the plate is necessary rather than printing the photos simply as they are. By working further into the plate I hope to allow them to show a deeper truth. Using the process of sugar lift transfers as a starting point, I've then been drawing back into the plate with aquatint, hardground and spit bite, and reworking the plate to etch the images. In this way they become a step removed, and allow a new perspective. The photos are transformed by the printmaking processes, becoming something more than the original image, as they are translated step by step.

The images I am currently working with are less about the original found object that was photographed than about the echoes of its presence felt within the image. I have been working with how the camera and myself generate these remembered images differently, using photos as a starting point and then drawing back into them and bringing my own hand into the image, reworking the plate and allowing the image to grow. I have also begun creating objects to be photographed, based on memories of other objects no longer present, or no longer whole. There is a thin barrier between the object and the viewer, obscuring the original object further and differentiating inner, outer, and personal spaces. I want to make the viewer simultaneously feel the presence of an object beyond their view, and to feel that sense of presence as well as understand that it is there, though there may be no immediate access to it. I don't believe that the knowledge of what is being shown explicitly is necessary—it is enough to feel that this presence is, or was, once there.

Blow up

A series of explorations into the strangeness of the everyday. At a certain point, the known becomes unknown as you go closer to the object, and discover worlds unseen by the unaided eye.

Inner landscape

'Inner landscape' is an introspective on an internal sense of memory, and of memory loss, from both a personal and a more distanced, scientific viewpoint. The physical structure of nerve cells and the intangible information they possess are very different, and it is astonishing that such small changed can mean so much. I placed a particular emphasis on personal memory of my Grampa, drawing from older photos and my own experiences.

During the course of the work focus shifted form a more scientific, distanced representation to looking more closely at synapses, the spaces between nerve cells which allows for communication of memory and information between cells in the form of neurotransmitters. Even if the information in a single nerve cell remains intact, without a viable connection the information is as good as lost, and I wanted to explore the fragility and the power of such a tiny connection.

I wanted to take my interpretation of memory in the form of drawings, and portraits, and move to juxtapose that intangible information with the near invisible chemical reactions that happen inside and between brain cells. I hoped, that by showing that connection one could also infer what might happen were that connection gone. In some ways, it is a personal attempt to understand Dementia better, and to remind myself that even if others are now missing those memories, or they are gone, memories remain present in photographs, and in other people.

Explorations

Individual explorations, and works, that do not fit into any particular larger body of work.

Figuration

Different interpretations of the human figure over several years. This includes works done from observation, and works inspired by the figure.