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| DIPTYCHS My diptych images are based on both fictional and non-fictional references some of which are concrete and some whose origins are questionable. These questions and mysteries are what drive me to do my work. I work with memory, thought, photographs, and dreams. This is why it is difficult to place a fictional or non-fictional label on the elements that become parts of my paintings. I am fortunate to be in possession of a collection of thousands of photographs and slides that I inherited from my grandparents. They were antique collectors and dealers, and my grandfather was an artist who painted and took photographs. I am grateful that they were very diligent in preserving and retaining many family photographs and the fruits of my grandfather's exploits into photography. I use these photographs as the core of my work. Also included in this collection are beautiful studio and candid photographs of and by my great aunts, the Phelps Twins, who were famous singers and dancers in the 1920's and 1930's. Usually, I start a painting by choosing a few photographs that attract me visually. I then allow these images to linger in my thoughts for awhile. Eventually these images remind me of memories or experiences I have had. I paint elements from the photographs onto my paper, add additional visual elements, colors, or brushwork and combine elements from the photographs as needed. The result is a new world that could only manifest itself physically as a piece of art. A similar visual could, however, exist in one's mind as a memory, a dream or a thought. |
| INSTALLATION "...my train� my stream�between memory and a dream�"is a site-specific installation. It is a cyclorama of paintings; that is a continuous painting made up of several panels hung directly adjacent to one another. Spectators must walk around the gallery to experience the work in its entirety. Journal entries are included on the work in the form of handwritten text. The panels are images of a partly fictional, partly non-fictional memory based on photographic source material that I have acquired from my maternal grandparents. Using the photo collection as a source for imagery, I express separate but connected moments in time and thought where memory, history, imagination, and reality are sometimes merged and/or disordered. I am drawn to the photos of exterior space, as opposed to interior space, because like time and memory, exterior space has few limits and boundaries. The sparse, expansive areas in my paintings are symbolic of the infinite nature of thoughts and memories. This openness which indicates that the space extends beyond the boundaries of the painting indefinitely, also conveys the infinite nature of time. When choosing material to depict, I elect to include not enough information, rather than too much, because this leaves those sparse areas open to interpretation. Although my work is intensely personal, I would like my viewers to be able to relate and even apply my imagery to their own memories. Trees, houses, and cars are dominant features in my paintings because they are plentiful in the landscape and can trigger a memory of a certain person or time period. I believe it is incredibly important to remember one's past and the wider collective history; especially in our world today, where our focus moves increasingly faster towards the landscape of technology and away from the natural landscape. Memories and thoughts do not usually have a regard for structured time and do not always follow the same sequence as actual events. Memories become organized in the mind by commonalties other than proximity in time. According to Edmund Blair Bolles in Remembering and Forgetting, Inquiries into the Nature of Memory, experiments have shown that we distort, combine, and reorganize memories. Memories can also change and automatically update themselves when we ourselves change, grow, mature, obtain new opinions, or learn new things. |
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