PHOT 719 - Photographic Arts I: Ideation and Experimentation

ARTIST STATEMENT

Growing up we faked being wealthy in an upper middle class neighborhood, but we made the most with what we had. Most of those decisions came down to getting creative with our food decisions. We were blessed with what was provided. From grilled cheese sandwiches to pancakes for dinner, we were never left hungry. There was never any waste.

As life went on for me, I grew up to become a visual artist working with international brands for over 14 years. I slowly learned about iconic photography through that experience. I taught myself photography and made a name for myself from that. When I was laid off in 2017 from my dream job, I found myself on food stamps for the first time in my life. $200 dollars to get through the month was given to me from unemployment benefits. I was found to consider $7 a day for breakfast, lunch, and dinner total. Going back to my childhood I made it work one way or another, but that tenacity stands with me now in all areas of my life.

It is amazing what you can do with 7 dollars a day through creativity. Being on food stamps made me think of how families in other countries have to get more creative with even less. I wanted to apply that principle of “working with what you got” to photography in order to see where things could turn up in the discussion. Often I have considered the massive budgets of fashion photography in comparison and I see waste being had for artwork that ultimately gets thrown away each month. I now work in a restaurant and see food leftover in trashcans and realize food waste in America is everywhere.

I do what I can with what I can. I’ve learned from what I’ve seen. I draw inspiration from what came before in order to create something possibly new but also familiar. I mold all of my life experiences into something new within the boundaries that I am afforded in society from my own class status. I’ve decided with this series to go back to playing with my food to make things work. There is the idea of waste as a visual prop in my works to utilize as a metaphor of building an identity as an artist with the value of what I have at my disposal. Within my waste for art sake there is commentary on the value had for each image. But also I have to tell myself it is also about utilizing the food we take for granted in a different kind of consumption. Now living on means that are definitely not what they once were for me, every shoot has been about 1 to 15 dollars to execute. All food chosen to be wasted have been deducted from my monthly food budget for a sake of art and statement.

After all, I am simply a starving artist trying to make it in the world.

Artist Summary

I have come to the thought that no idea is original. The only thing unique is taking an idea and making it unto yourself.

My work is deeply entrenched with both the philosophical and artistic questioning of self. This desire for an answer comes from a question raised since childhood by the caterpillar from Alice in Wonderland asking Alice, “Who are You?”. From that question, I find myself constantly holding up a mirror mask searching for a sense of identity throughout life. The one I know is built equally on what has come before and what I have experienced. Frugalness perseveres throughout my work when every dollar counts to get a message across based on my life experience of making ends meet. From working with what is available, I believe that you leave the door open to possibly create something universal in meaning by stripping down to basics. 

It has been discussed that contemporary art is never about “you”. I disagree when my entire body of work is wrapped upon, not only my own self-identity discovery, but the self-discovery of my every-day models as well. “I exist.”  “We exist.” By making that statement, so must it be true that I exist within a contemporary context of such discussion. I am an artist telling you my story and hoping you somehow relate in commonality. Does that make my work about me or about you? Maybe it is both things within a conversation about you and I. My story told through my works expresses a fear and acceptance of being a starving artist built upon childhood dreams.  

I have questioned art in the “ME” culture of today where everyone is their own personal brand from Facebook, Linkedin, Instagram, TikTok, Student-Teacher, Employee-Employer, mother-daughter and father-son. How many different roles are we playing all at once in order to have our perceived 15 minutes that Andy Warhol predicted for the future? Topics of mental health, personal experiences, communal belonging all take the forefront of contemporary social art these days.  There is room in the world for acknowledging it has become more about “ME” and “U” everyday and how we express ourselves to one another. 

My photographic works are predominantly based on the creation of conceptual portraiture that accentuate character personalities and internal emotion-based imagery. They are done with what is available to my means. While heavily influenced by pop culture, literature and myth, my portraits strive to transcend through the use of clean iconic images derived by not only a graphic design background, but from a marketing sensibility. Often layered with meaning and symbolism, the works created can be filled with both serious and humorous undertones to let you in to discover not only the models, but also myself.