With the end of the show a week away I felt it was time to finally getting to post some images of the opening. I will be visiting the gallery this Wednesday at 11 am to meet with friends unable to come to the opening.
To see all of my new work together in such a beautiful space was inspiring and motivating. The reinvention of my art is now becoming cohesive and mature. While there is still much room for experimentation new processes have been explored and many new possibilities have emerged.
Thanks to all that attended the opening and Pompano's monthly Untapped event. The energy surrounding the openingwas powerful and positive, flowing freely into the gallery. My only regret was not being able to visit longer with so many friends that came to support. Giant hugs to all. And special thanks to Alexa Johnson and Steve Yarley for taking photos and documenting the event. Much appreciated.
The exhibition chronicles primarily a two year period of creating new work after recovering from issues arising from use of oil paint and improper ventilation where I worked. The problems lead to a drastic change of lifestyle which in retrospect was essential to providing the catalyst for new experimentation. I included several older pieces that represented my early interest in making mixed media art. They certainly feel like there are more ties to my older work in color and media, this work from 2006 began a journey on using my own digital images for my collages.
If you would like to read more a statement about the art and the show will be included after the images of the opening.
Here is my artist statement about the work being exhibited at the Bailey Contemporary.
Necessity is the mother of invention or re-invention in my case. This shift had been developing for several years due to a chemical sensitivity to the very art materials that gave me infinite joy. A difficult situation would inspire a new solution in order to continue to make art. Ultimately oil painting, my passion and identity as an artist, would be replaced by a new virtual world devoid of migraine headaches. I began my journey into creating digital art where my laptop became an ever-changing window to new spontaneous adventures.
The ebb and flow of my life’s circumstances, the vulnerability of my spirit and its resilience is always juxtaposed to my close relationship to nature. My current body of work explores a complex relationship with time and memory. Photoshop creates layers of virtual media with layers of context and changed perceptions of reality. It opens the possibilities of a surreal, spiritual multilevel visual experience as I re-inventing my identity as an artist.
Photography has always been a part of my creative life. The art of digital photography provides me the opportunity to indulge in my compulsive curiosity by capturing thousands of moments of beauty. I enjoy viewing the world through a lens, from the tiniest miracles of everyday life to witnessing the grand wonders of nature and urban culture during my travels.
The photographs become the starting point to recombine the images creating a completely new narrative. By not using the images in their original context challenges the primary objective of travel photography and its intension of documentation. I suggest a unique interpretation where fragments of moments have the power to create a completely new journey.
I always begin with an initially strong image embedded with the memories and emotion of the time when the image is captured. My creative process echoes my approach to media as a painter where technology allows for the possibilities of many interesting layers that contribute to the development of surface similar as if using paint. There is the space here for visual accidents in both surface and content. The composite images I make can be fascinating, creepy or amusing while evoking a subjective dreamlike imaginary world between the past and the present, nature and culture. Mixing the past and the present create new connections and transformations.