artist's statements

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 My abstracts that are montages, as seen on the home page, are created each as single large format artworks some of which are made on materials including archival art paper, canvas and as a metal print. 

The process I use is a multi-step activity starting with sourcing then editing individual images, assembling parts or all of them into a first stage montage. I continue with constant experimentation until achieving the meaning and sensations I have intended. My starting point is one photograph that inspires me and while enjoying it I ask myself "what if" in other words if this photograph was alive what might it want to morph into. Then I look for other photos that feel they might be relatives of this first one. Each intuitively found relative might be dramatically different from the first one and likely all the others too. There origins coul be from anywhere in the world and thier subjects have no relation to each other, in fact this stage is deliberately intended to be chaotic.

Next I add them to the first photograph one by one and use digital means to blend them together in various ways. At this point spontaneity is crucial. Then I sort them into different hierarchies to learn how they behave with each other and what the results of those behaviors might be. Some results will occur that appeal to me and sI feel relate to what my original intentions were. Once the relationships between the photographs meet my general expectation, I go through an an even longer process of adjusting each photograph's shapes, colors, textures, transitions,  and use all the other formalities. 

You may wonder how do I gather and apply my inspirations? My ideas, concepts, passions preferably evolve from specific sources that I feel are central to who I am. Of course these include my family and friends and my several careers that especially play a central role in how my imagination works. I tap into the careers in special ways that help me form ideas out of experience, events in my life,   then work my way through the feelings those events have placed with me.

I am deeply in love with making art this way celebrating and procreating the relationships between photographs and the realities captured by them which are transformed into a chaotic and exciting montage. Working in this abstract manner defies descriptions about what the montage is about or decribes something in reality. Instead the intention like listening to non-descriptive music. That is you don't need to find verbal ways to express what it means, but you can express what you feel from the auditory experience.