Visual Art – Chicago
Who am I as an artist? I am a photographer. My photography and art constantly challenge me. Why am I an artist? I am an artist because art is important. Photography matters. I create art to see things differently. George Steinmetz said it well when he said, “My job is to open people’s eyes to all the amazing things they didn’t know existed.” Or Lynn Johnson who said, “ You want to reveal what life is like – show things we may never fully understand.” Currently, I am a fine art photographer who approaches photography in a stylistic rather than photo-journalistic manner. I am especially drawn to reflections and shadows, exploring how different materials create different reflections and abstractions; some create an exact replica of the original image while others create a distorted image. In this way, I tend to be drawn to water and its ever-changing reflective qualities. Some of my images evoke an eerie or mysterious quality; where you can\'t be sure what you are looking at. My photography can have a noisy or busy quality since I enjoy blurred lines, both physically and figuratively. I prefer to work with simplistic cameras, such as the Holga, because they add unexpected qualities to an image not seen in the viewfinder. I studied photography in college from traditional darkroom to digital; however, I am most happy when working with alternative processes.