Artist’s Statement

It’s interesting that as I get older as an artist I focus more on finding new ways to mystify myself. To challenge myself with new approaches and techniques, concepts that may not have existed in the past, or new forms and themes that I would have never considered valid a decade or two ago. It shows that making art is truly a lifelong task.

Years accumulating knowledge and expertise with the goal of mastering a craft and finding that mastery is not necessarily what it’s all about. There’s something deeper—or, at least, deeper in me.

I’d been making photographs for many years and as much as I love photography over time the darkroom process had grown tedious and boring. Having in advance a pretty good idea of what the finished print would look like at the end of the session—a sharply focused print with a full range of silver grays from white to black that hopefully came close to the standards of a ‘fine art’ print—I had to force myself to go into the darkroom. I may have been working with a different negative each time, but I was pretty much doing the same thing that I’d been doing for years. Over and over. It bored me.

Art as a personal exploration. Exploration of process and materials with a overriding concern, at least for me, with what it means to be a visual artist in the 21st century. An exploration of lens-based photographic images using various traditional and historic processes.

I am not interested in telling a story. I certainly acknowledge that approach as valid, but I find that a focus on making art with no agenda or preconceived intention is more satisfying.