Final Project

Artist’s Statement
(Color Photo – Burnt Negative Series)

My grounding and perspective as a painter taking pictures has recently led me to investigate the abstraction of photography. In certain painting styles there is a sense of action conveyed with a dance of brushstrokes, paint splatter, and drips co-mingling together to create atmosphere and feeling often devoid of content. It is my intention with this series of printed negatives, which have been intentionally damaged by fire, to emulate this kind of painting and strip away the representational aspect that is so ingrained with the medium of photography. It is my hope that these photos in a larger scale will draw in the viewer to look at and examine the loss of information and be affected by the empty and open atmosphere. It is my contention that we are often overloaded with visual data and the inserted messages or meaning of the reality captured by most photographs. This series offers an escape from this and allows the viewer openness for a more personal meaning or relevance.

The meaning and content that can be derived from this series is ambiguous, yet is meant to allude to a connection between the micro and macro worlds. This lack of clarity allows the viewer to select what world or atmosphere they are peering into, ranging from the microscopic level, perhaps a deep sea environment, to looking at some nebulous celestial body in outer space. Also, the process of transforming an image of reality via fire and the resulting cavernous holes symbolize the true nature of our world. Our perceptions of the world as being stable and concrete are, in fact, not a scientific model. This model tells us other dimensions exist around us and that everything at a fundamental level is in a state of change. There are holes in reality and these are the windows offering a glimpse beyond the veil.

My approach when I am creating is usually a process of examining things that would normally be overlooked or discarded. The uselessness of something that has been destroyed is put on a pedestal which allows flaw and damage to elevate a perceived ugliness and to expose a true, intrinsic, and sublime nature. For me, this process is tied to a fascination with theoretical physics and ideas of hidden dimensions or realities. I have a strong desire to find that which is veiled or hidden and to decode the symbolic or mysterious in everything around us. I am expecting that the viewer will be more examining of reality and walk away with a better ability to see beauty, especially with that which has not been deemed worthy of being labeled as such, yet is inherently beautiful.