Artist Statement

My work involves vision and how I actually see the world and the objects in it. This is not unique. Every artist expresses their viewpoint. My twist is that I portray my view of the world through a virtual device, eyeglasses. This virtual reality is called 20/20, and I am told this is how the world should look. However, without this virtual device, the world is a blur, void of detail and defined shapes, where color and form blend into one another. I use both these views in creating my art.

In this virtual reality, light waves are bent, focused and stored in my memory. Similarly, I use a camera and film to record light information for retrieval later. These records become source material for my work. My memory and photographs save only small parts of the whole. Film's limited range of sensitivity and memory's subjective naturecontribute to this imprecision. I simplify the image by blurring the two realities together. A computer and its image manipulation software aid me to merge these two perspectives. The computer allows me to control, enhance, and manipulate light to form a reality somewhere between the two realities.

The computer also frees me to alter the memory of images to fit my idea or vision. If I was painting or drawing, I would be marking on some substance that would be more tangible than memory (organic or magnetic). There are many ways to obtain output from a computer, but they do not necessarily physically involve the user (i.e., the machine makes the marks). When I explored the use of computers in my work, I felt compelled to explore and develop new ways of creating output. To insure that I would be involved in the process of making the marks, I developed a method to color separate a computer image, that may be used in any printmaking or painting technique to produce the final image. In the end, these separations facilitate the transfer of memory's contents as well as permit me to mark a surface directly.