Strange Times

Just something I'm working on.  It's a start after a prolonged hiatus, and hopefully more will be on the way.  Tried to force myself to work for awhile, but nothing really happened.  I think I just needed some time away from everything to get a little perspective.

Been Away for too Long

Things are going slow, but I haven't quit.  Though these posts are few and far between, I have been wanting to do this for a while.  I've been dragging my heels some, though.  In truth, I have been having a hard time doing what I want to do, and lately there has been much, much more failure than success.  Another sample image that is pointing in the direction I want to go.

I think it's time to stop testing the waters, and dive right in.  Just can't seem to get in front of this, I'm always playing catch up.

Psychotic Break

So, I've been gone for a while now.

I have been working, but certainly not posting.  That is going to be changing soon, though.

I have spent the months since Grad School ended reclaiming my life as my own, and taking care of all the things that, of necessity, had fallen by the wayside over the last two years.

I am working on a new body of work, an offshoot from my grad stuff.  I am embracing the fictional element that exists in my work, and exploring that more in depth.  I am continuing with the empty spaces that capture glimpses of people without showing them directly, and with the images being largely interior domestic spaces (at the moment).  Before I explain too much more, I want to get a few more images under my belt and take some time to consider them more in depth.  

That being said, here's are some images that aren't finished yet, and sort of in-between-ideas moments.  Closer to the work I have done than the work I am doing, they will seem very familiar to anyone who remembers my more recent stuff.  The first is pretty straightforward, a new domestic scene in a new place to photograph.  The second is closer to what I will be doing (namely - the inclusion of more fictional elements) and is not a scene from my life or existence.  It is a much more staged image, with more fictional elements creeping in.  Once I have all of this more flushed out, I will start being much less cryptic and confusing.  

Treat these as stepping stone trailers - just a taste of something that will be much more well rounded when I actually start to post the newer stuff.

Heavy Soul

Well, MFA completed. I will not, however, be abandoning this blog.

Continue checking in from time to time as I continue on. I have already been working on something new, well old but new.

My last image posted, Bedroom I, will be the start of something new, I think. Instead of the last of another series, it will be the seedlings of a new body of work. A work of both truth and fiction, melding the two into a description of a somewhat real experience.

Swan Song

Looks like the end is fast approaching. Got the Artist Talk written and practiced (mostly), images ready(ish) for installation and thesis ready for defense (I Believe). All in all, seems like I'm getting near the end, ready or not.

I have been spending alot of time planning exactly what it is I am going to install next week, and have the whole thing mapped out in my head. I made small mock ups and played around with different set ups before finally figuring out what is going to be the strongest. Know the nature of the beast that is the group show, however, I have left a little bit of wiggle room for some restructuring that may need to be done when I actually see where in the gallery I am going to be. Creating something that has both the malleability to be flexible in a pinch while still retaining that strength of its concepts has proven an interesting undertaking. I've worked alot on this with my mentor Shellburne Thurber, and feel pretty confident about what I am walking in with.

Now that I actually have the final prints in hand, and can see that I am happy with them individually, I am beginning to see the installation take shape as a whole as well.

It's been interesting seeing all of this come together, and will be interesting to see how much changes even still. I've learned that nothing (and I mean nothing) ever goes quite the way I plan it. As a result I am trying to prepare myself for anything. Should be interesting...

The Devil & Me

So, the thesis is finished. For better or worse, it has officially been submitted.

I have been focusing on getting my installation together, and making some new work that I haven't had time to do. Here's an example.

This has been one hell of a semester (in more ways than one) and now it is time to actually get back to some studio work. Made this far, just keep going.

Seven Years

I have actually been meaning to post to this for quite a while, I swear. It has been an insanely hectic month or so, and I'm coming up on the last draft of my thesis. It seems to be going well, but it does take more time, thought and energy than I had initially anticipated.

The whole experience has been one hell of a process in which I have trudged uphill, closer to ultimately understanding what the hell it is that I have been doing for the last two years. Truth of the matter is that I don't always think ahead, or know what I'm doing in advance. More often than not, in fact, I work from a more guttural place, and slowly understand what I've done only as subsequent years follow. This whole program has forced alot of growth into a short period of time, and has really made me come to terms with who I am as an artist, and why it is that I am doing just what it is that I am doing.

I've begun to consider what the Graduate Exhibition will look like, and it is starting to take shape in my brain. I don't think I will have a single image, or even a few, but really more of an installation that encompasses alot of what I have done throughout the course of this program. Working with my mentor, the amazing Shellburne Thurber, we are starting to construct something that will encompass not just what I have done, but will also reference the scope of what I have been doing, referencing the experience of memory and passage of time as well.

I will have more images to come, but they will be but a few and far between. There's still alot of work to do, and nothing is set in stone as of yet.