Building America (photo series)

The Reproduce: Opening February 3rd

Announcing my newest piece/gallery opening at Judson University's Draewell Gallery in Elgin, Illinois.

The opening is 11am-1pm on Friday February 3rd with an artist's talk to follow at 4:30pm in the Herrick Chapel. The show runs through March 2nd. Gallery Hours: 8am-5pm M-W and F, 8am-9pm Thursdays. 

Artist’s Statement

As a formal yet playful interrogation of the relationship between action and art, the viewer of this piece is asked to become one of its makers, blurring the traditional roles of artistic authorship. As a month-long opportunity for conceptual and physical engagement, The Reproduce will manifest its own potential through the hands of others.

Tables surround the room filled with objects. The Reproduce is asking us to think about these instances of life in their infinite potential as well as their finite limitations. The gallery provides a frame as these compositions are created, explored, and destroyed.

Reality and its image merge in a space that is left open for both intimacy and publicity. The results are yet to be seen.

Participation

Objects are organized around the gallery space; an outline and artist-chosen description indicate the home for each of them. The center of the gallery space is now the platform for development.

Reproduce what you will from the tools and resources allotted to you. The only rules are to be respectful of the items and of others. Please refrain from taking objects away from the piece.  Remake, take away, add to, clean up... the action is yours and will contribute to the whole.

Developments in the space will be periodically documented throughout the month. Each week the gallery will be reset, all items returning to their home locations for a fresh start.

Photo(s) 2

The Overpass Series. August 2011. (See photo post below).

Photo(s)

It's no secret that I've been spending an enormous amount of my time over the past few years taking photographs. I call myself a photographer in the sense that I take pictures for people and they pay me for my services. I rarely consider making purely photographic art however. Sometimes divisions in the mind are created early on that stubbornly stick around.

It's not that I don't think of photography as art, far from it. The photographic medium is one of the most compelling and enigmatic materials in my opinion, and one of the few that I could spend an entire day gazing upon without the tiniest bit of sleepiness. 

I taught myself to use the camera after finishing all of my academic years. Never in six years did I take a single photo class (which makes no sense to me now). Because of my needs at the time, needs for a day job to pay for this pesky art habit and a need to be useful to my fellow humans, I learned to use a camera and in doing so apparently taught myself to view it as a business before a medium. 

Dabble I do, however in the finer thoughts. For that reason, I plan to post some photographs I've taken recently as a way of declaring that they can be my work, just as much as the other. Even if it's just a self-declaration to small ends... I think it could fruitful if not vulnerable. I'll be searching my hard drive over the coming months to see what lurks in the recesses. 

The next wave will be to finally edit some of my many hours of (highly alluring) video footage for a long overdue vimeo reunion. Let's see how much I get done while teaching Art History and preparing for a show in February. Hah.