Art Statement
Initially this project began as an exploration of how color is a reflection of nature’s palette.
The still lifes are constructed by placing a living object from nature such as a berry or flower on a background that I have painted. Sometimes I match one of the essential colors in that subject or simply create an illustrated landscape in which the object can exist. I worked quickly to photograph the still life before the living object started to decompose. After being photographed, the painted scene is washed away, and thus no longer exists except in the form of a photograph.
I am interested in exploring the boundaries of ordinary perception of a photographic still life. My process-oriented work of photographing paint and a subject from nature is a way to challenge habits of seeing an image. The effect creates something that could appear to be a photograph, an animation or an illustration. By viewing a living object out of its normal context, I draw focus toward unusual plays on shape, composition, and opacity. These painted scenes place the recognizable subjects in varying existences, intending to evoke contemplation.
I use photography as a matrix for what I call these ‘Disappearing Landscapes.’ The idea of a ‘Disappearing Landscape’ is an analogy for nature as a self-generating, continuously changing and interacting arrangement of elements.