New installation statement

Summer has been a bit more relaxing -- although I have some projects in process, things have calmed down since my dad's house sold. As far as art goes, I have been focusing on putting together a new installation portfolio. Although I have been working pretty steadily on one or another installation project over the past few years, for some reason I never actually thought of my installations as a coherent body of work, which, in fact, they are. So I wrote a new artist statement referring specifically to the installations. Here is is:

"In my installations I enjoy experimenting in both conceptual and material dimensions, working with themes such as family and the remembered past, or local landscape and the environment. I create each piece by combining photographic images (either from my own or found photos), familiar domestic objects (a shower curtain or diapers, for example), and layers of found text. Imagery, word play and metaphorical suggestion work together visually and poetically, conjuring multidimensional meaning. In addition, each piece is grounded in lived experience – retrieved from memory and/or presented to engage the viewer intimately and move beyond the constraints of intellect to a revised perspective.
In constructing these pieces I usually establish formal groupings of the collected images and materials according to patterns and repetitions only marginally related to the content of the piece. Although the contents of each installation are mundane and typically domestic or local, the pieces themselves speak to larger social or environmental concerns. My goal is to bring the viewer with me as I shift emphasis away from subjective content and personal affect to a more suggestive and universal zone of perception neither purely representational nor non-representational."

New photo of Arroyo Seco shower curtain installation

Here is a view of "Arroyo Seco Watershed and Surrounding Area," my installation from the EcoArt show at Barnsdall.