Artist Statement 

         

         My recent body of work consists of altered photographs in which I express my vision of the modern world to my viewers. My creative process can be most similarly compared to Rorschach’s inkblot test in psychology where patients are shown an inkblot on a flash card and asked to say the first thing that comes to mind.  Most of my work is derived from surrealist aspects. I often begin my process by selecting certain landscapes or fantastical imagery that interest me or spark an idea. This may be an image that I have taken myself or one that I have stumbled upon. I then select a surreal motif that fits with the photograph or preexisting work. I tend to run with the first idea that comes to mind and establish a new image by incorporating my own concepts through different mediums into these preexisting images. 

 

          I incorporate these surreal images in the most realistic and controlled manner I can possibly maintain. This, in a sense, melds my artistic vision with photography; however, it is not my full intention to blend my added work to the extent that it becomes a part of the preexisting photograph I have chosen.  In fact I make an effort to make my additions stand out from the surrounding scenarios. I want my viewers to see that I have taken something and made it my own through my individual creative process. Rather than view an image as an integrated whole I yearn for my viewers to see the extent of my own creative process and the way in which I perceive things.

 

          My artistic consciousness is inspired hugely in part by how we perceive things as human beings. As a society we view scenery and objects as being cohesive. However on an individual level people tend to view things in their own unique way. I intend to amplify the inner workings of the human mind in regards to the perception of landscapes on an individual basis, while maintaining a disjunctive distinction between reality and warped perceptibility. Through the application of paint and graphite my goal, as an artist, is to combine this aspect of individual perception by imposing my own artistic concepts onto embellished, digitally enhanced, preexisting landscape photographs.