artist statement

As an enthusiastic museum and gallery habitué, transcending the velvet ropes has always been a dream. The gulf created by that boundary lends a kind of prohibitive detachment. Close proximity to a piece avails an intimacy and connection that is not often allowed.

The transition from creating drawings which were measured in feet to working on collages measured in inches has naturally brought me closer to my work; closer not only in accessibility, but in interaction as well. These diminutive creations invite the viewer to interface with the piece in what may seem an uncomfortable distance- surgically slicing through the velvet rope barrier. While larger scale is very heroic, the amount of information conveyed in the small collages’ tens of layers is no less valorous.

The ideas of Marx and Freud dealing with alienation and isolation have long served as themes for my work. I thought I had left those themes behind when I embarked on a new series focused on revisiting and reinterpreting the past. Rather, it seems that forcing the viewer to interact with the work in an unaccustomed closeness is no departure, but an acknowledgment, a reinterpretation. To observe on such a minuscule level, with the intent to bridge the gap between viewer and art, eliminates, or at least, diminishes the feeling of isolation and alienation.

The means of coming to terms with that past are as layered as the collages themselves. A passion for conservation and preservation of vintage images and objects serves me as a buffer against the ever-more-rapidly changing vicissitudes of new century culture. As technology sends more and more of the familiar to the shredder, it is important to maintain a consciousness of the foundations of that technology and artistry.

Thank you for viewing my work.