Archive for the ‘Fine Art’ Category

Artist Statement – 2013

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I have spent my career studying the unique shape of the pregnant woman. With my most recent series, I am studying the landscape created by this form. When the images are printed large, the form becomes foreign. Worthy of examination and discussion, this shape represents an area of the women’s body that is surrounded by debate of ownership, degradation by toxic environments, and depravation of corporate fertility centers charging exorbitant fees for women who want to become pregnant.

Using mostly natural light and black and white film with no digital alteration, I have created two distinct bodies of work. The first is narrative and captures the subjects during their transformation to motherhood. The second is a radical departure from portraiture, removing the individual and framing the pregnant body as a new abstract landscape and language.

My goal is to present the diverse shapes and stories of pregnancy, to give them a place in visual history, and to employ this archetypal female form to spark conversations about contemporary western social issues surrounding the family.

Narrative work:

Sara, 2004.

Tonya, 2007

Abstract work:

Landscape Series, 2012
Tara, 27 weeks.
IVF

maternity photography

Landscape Series, 2012
Denyse, 38 weeks.
3rd pregnancy, natural after 2 IVF pregnancies.

Maternal landscapes – New work

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First experimentation with the female landscape

I spent ten days at an artists’ retreat this past August and had a fantastic time. What came out of the program was a renewed sense of commitment to keep on progressing with my work with the pregnant female form. After many late night discussions with an artist friend (usually over wine which is so stereo typical), I decided I wanted to break the maternal nude into two categories, one being more about the individual and one being more landscape. Today I am going to discuss the landscape form.

The inspiration for this work comes from a well-known Japanese photographer, Hiroshi Sugimoto http://www.indejacobs.com/Sugimoto.html. Sugimoto”s pictures “seduce in a down to earth way – an enchantingly Japanese minimalism informs the artist’s black and white photographs (assemblylanguage.com)” He is best known for his seascapes which have been his main subject for the past 20 years.

The beauty in this simple horizon is stunning, and each horizon is unique depending on the day, the light and the weather. It is this work that started me thinking about doing the same with the maternal nude and the pregnant belly. I want to strip this form of all of its identifying features and let the viewer absorb the beauty and the softness of each individual shape. Sugimoto shoots with an old 8×10 view camera often making exposures that are up to 1 and a half hours long.

Sugimoto’s Mediterranean Sea

While I can’t quite ask my pregnant subjects to stay still for that long, I have started using some different techniques. I am starting to use a macro lens with my 35mm camera, and I have acquired a 4×5 view camera, which I will start experimenting with in a few weeks. Here are some of the latest pieces. I look forward to a room full of these. Currently I am printing them on Silver Gelatin Fiber paper 16×20 and hope to do them even larger.

Think of this shape and how much it represents. Why isn’t it better represented in visual history? This is the question that I am going to continue to pursue.

Recent work done with TMAX 3200 and a 60mm Macro

The Birth of a Mother exhibit

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Here’s the press release from my exhibit in Umbria Italy from July 2011.