Artist Statement
Our eyes see very differently than cameras do. And the image that remains in our mind’s eye is often very distinct from the actual image that has been made with a camera.
While photography can be used in documentary way, I have come to learn and appreciate that my choice of lens, shutter speed and aperture, alter not only the exposure, but also the perception of reality.
A camera’s ability to manipulate time opens the doors to creating images that our eyes would otherwise be unable to perceive on their own.
Over the years, I have found myself conflicted by the growing ease with which digital images can be manipulated, while also frustrated by the presence of human elements (think: telephone wires) that clutter scenes and get in the way of what I see or remember in my mind’s eye.
And then I am reminded that even Frank Hurley, who photographed on glass negatives, was reported to have added smoke coming out of the ears of his subjects, composited images and dodged and burned in the dark room days-of-old.
I am left asking myself, “are there really any rules when it comes to art?”
Artistic Positioning
As we move further into this exciting age of digital art and NFT art, I believe the doors to creativity have been flung wider open than ever before. The options for image manipulation have become near to limitless and the creation of fine art has become increasingly subjective.
So where does that leave me? On the side of art!
And what does that look like for me?
Technique + Approach
Light, time, motion, textures, shadows are my raw materials – the building blocks and elements of abstract expressionism.
I freeze motion with my shutter. And I blur time with my shutter.
I frame an image with my camera. And I crop an image in my computer.
I exclude components. And I composite images together.
I follow the rules. I bend the rules. I rewrite the rules. I toss out the rules
I do like order. I like patterns. I like balance. I like fluid movement within my frame. I like perfectly squared horizons. But I have also chosen to not be held captive by them. I will break “the rules” even if they are only my rules – when, and if I feel so inclined and inspired!
I want to create images that speak to my soul.
I enhance, retouch, adjust contrast and saturation, remove distractions and finish an image with my own post production workflows.
And chances are very good that the final image you will see is not the original file that my camera sensor or film captured.
I am more than okay with that! And pretty sure you are too, or you wouldn’t be here now!
Sources of Inspiration
I find creative inspiration all around me.
But the most rich source, for me, is nature.
The patterns, rhythms, details and order that surround us, speak of an artist’s creativity.
The way that light behaves is predictable and dependable, and yet playful and surprising at the same time
I also find inspiration in the work of others like Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Willem de Kooning, Phillip Guston, Robert Irwin, Art Wolfe, Edward Burtynsky, and Andreas Gursky, to name just a few.
I am inspired by Lawren S. Harris’ distinct painting style. Like hearing a new U2 song for the first time, and knowing its creative origins, Harris had a style that was uniquely and distinguishably his.
Likewise, I am inspired by the work of Laurie Near, who has a style that is all her own. So much so, that one day as I was flipping through a magazine I came across a photo of a painting, that I instantly recognized as having been made by her. Her style has become her signature.
I do not believe that uniqueness or originality should be the ultimate goal. There are some who try, almost forcefully to be original. I don’t think that is the point of art.
I do believe, however, that we are each created uniquely and have our own voice with which to speak. And when we are true ourselves and how we see the world, our own unique creativity will become an expression and extension of our work
Personal Expertise
Details. Details. Details. I see in details.
I was raised gazing through telescopes and microscopes towards opposite sides of infinity!
I will fully admit that I have a difficult time soaking in the vast vistas of a mountain landscape. I know others who can sit for hours relishing the view.
While I do appreciate broad landscapes, I find I get distracted by the details that are around me. The moss on a tree. A tiny toadstool. The changing wave forms on the water. The reflections of light. A shadow or pattern.
Most recently, I have been learning to play – playing with time and motion. Trying to see things in a new way – in a way that I cannot see on my own, in a way that my camera can help me see! It has been a very therapeutic and restoring process – to play!
Artistic Training
My artistic formation has been, for the most part, informal.
Photography has been a passion and hobby since my youngest days. And my desire to learn more and better my skills has been an investment that I have and continue to enjoy and prioritize.
However, learning to see, listen, wait and explore have come in lessons, all through my life.
While working in her studio, my grandmother would teach me how to frame a scene, how to exclude distractions, how to create movement within an image, how to mix and use colours, how to see light and shadow. All skills that carry over to photographic compositions.
Learning to play piano, taught me to hear and feel rhythm and timing, volumes, tones, emotion, and even breathing within the phrasing of music.
Learning music history and harmony taught me to hear different styles of music, instruments and techniques.
Learning to sing, taught me about phrasing, and creating space and movement through a piece of work. And framing a piece in a similar fashion to how an artist would frame a painting.
Learning to play with black and white film taught me to see patterns and how to remove the emotional influence of colour – the gradient of light becoming the influencing factor.
Developing photos in a dark room, taught me patience and perseverance and how you can manipulate the outcome of a photograph through how it is processed.
Moving into the world of digital photography has come through hundreds, if not thousands of hours of online courses, videos and tutorials, reading, experimenting, practising, failing and trying all over again.
Together, a lifetime of learning has brought me to where I am today – on the doorstep of something new: NFTs!
Artistic Community
My artistic community starts with those closest to me.
In my early years, on family trips, there were always multiple cameras in tow. My father’s camera was loaded with slide film. My mother’s was loaded with photo film. And my first little Kodak Instamatic was loaded with a 110 film cartridge.
My grandfather carved beautiful wooden duck decoys; my grandmother painted them! My grandfather made photographs on family vacations; my grandmother set-up her easel and painted the same scenes into beautiful oil paintings.
Even now, our family trips have not changed much, in the sense of the role that photography plays, although we no longer carry film. Nowadays we are much more concerned with memory cards and battery life! My parents, brother and me, along with our partners, all travel with a camera in tow. And what I love most is the fact that we can all visit the same places together and come home with entirely different sets of photos. We all observe the world differently, noticing and appreciating different aspects of the same locations.
Goals + Projects
At present I am working on an ongoing body of Limited Edition NFTs of my water abstractions. Alongside of this Limited Edition I have a number of other personal projects that I am working on, which I hope to share with you as they take shape!
Artistic Approach
In the field
I see in details. I see in patterns. I see in photos.
I see the world, cropped through my lens, often before I even raise my camera to my eye.
Over the past few years, I have been playing more and more with the limits of what my camera can see and capture for me.
Water reflections, for example, capture my attention and as the wave forms reflect the colours around me, I use them as paint on my digital canvas! I often make multiple images of a specific situation, mostly because when working with moving water, it is very difficult to predict the nuances of each image through the view-finder.
What I capture through my camera, however, is not the end of my creative process. The real creativity, for me, takes place long after the raw materials of light, colour and motion are captured in slivers of time on digital memory cards.
In the studio
Once home, I download this digital raw material to my computer, where I can begin to use them to paint a new canvas of colour, shape and form.
I may rotate, flip, crop, adjust, blend or duplicate images. I composite images and parts of images together to fill my new digital canvas with the colours, lines, and movement in the way that each set of photographs require to become something more.
The process can be both highly rewarding and exceeding frustrating. There are times when images I never expected, come together in surprising ways that make my heart sing. And there are other times when patterns and colour that captivated my heart, in the field, and for which I had so much hope, fall far short of becoming what I had envisioned they might be capable of!
People often ask where the colours in my photos come from. For the most part, what you see in my images is the colour objects that were reflected in the water or present in nature, at the time that the original images where created. On very rare occasion, I will choose to digitally colour-shift the palette of an image, when I feel it would enhance the final print and give it more visual impact or make it more aesthetically pleasing to the viewer.