Simply stated, I would call myself an artist who makes prints of the human form. My work explores the boundary of psychological and physical within the human body. Originally rooted in personal struggle and scientific fascination, the work now encompasses a much larger and more universally profound interaction. Body dysmorphia provides those who are afflicted with it, the perception of a physicality that does not exist; a false body, and more cruelly, the inability to decipher it. Building on the idea of a false body, the work also gains inspiration from the neurological phenomena of phantom limbs. The sensory residue of an appendage that is no longer part of the body, phantom limbs are described as sensory ghosts, they take on extra-sensory characteristics, much like a dysmorphic false body. Fundamentally, psychology and physiology are disconnected; cognition throws a kink in our biological plan. It is in this conflict that I find inspiration for my work, and in portraying the body, an artistic universal.
There is no one way to decode the figures in my prints. However, they are all personal interpretations of my own bodily experience over time. Using mark, I explore essential aspects of the body: weight, posture, gravity, volume, mass and force. The figures are framed like portraits within the picture plane and hung like them as well. They are life size and isolated. Both figure and ground are key in understanding each bodily moment.
Chronologically, the monotypes provided inspiration for the etchings. Their immediacy allow me to directly map (through ink, paper and pressure) my body under force. Forms become distended and incomplete. The ink creates an exaggerated texture of my own body. The process is truly fluid and has a mind of its own. The figures are simultaneously immediate and distant, whole and disconnected.
The etchings are obsessive investigations of the monotypes. They are an effort to decode as well as complicate the bodies of the monotypes. Time was spent in days and weeks on the same figure. Miniature marks accumulate over time to map the form. Ranging from enlarged pore-like, to obscure alien-like, to skin and scale-like, to ultra-plush fur; the marks and forms extend beyond physical experience because they do not make sense. In addition to simple and assertive space the combination of familiar and unfamiliar forms create a psycho-physical paradox.
There is no one way to decode the figures in my prints. However, they are all personal interpretations of my own bodily experience over time. Using mark, I explore essential aspects of the body: weight, posture, gravity, volume, mass and force. The figures are framed like portraits within the picture plane and hung like them as well. They are life size and isolated. Both figure and ground are key in understanding each bodily moment.
Chronologically, the monotypes provided inspiration for the etchings. Their immediacy allow me to directly map (through ink, paper and pressure) my body under force. Forms become distended and incomplete. The ink creates an exaggerated texture of my own body. The process is truly fluid and has a mind of its own. The figures are simultaneously immediate and distant, whole and disconnected.
The etchings are obsessive investigations of the monotypes. They are an effort to decode as well as complicate the bodies of the monotypes. Time was spent in days and weeks on the same figure. Miniature marks accumulate over time to map the form. Ranging from enlarged pore-like, to obscure alien-like, to skin and scale-like, to ultra-plush fur; the marks and forms extend beyond physical experience because they do not make sense. In addition to simple and assertive space the combination of familiar and unfamiliar forms create a psycho-physical paradox.
