Materializing Invisible Worlds

Materializing invisible worlds is the core of my work. I use photography and video to reveal the invisible worlds of emotion, the subconscious, dreaming, and histories archived within the body. I am particularly interested in how the expressiveness of the human body unearths women's stories through dance and movement.

I find that landscapes contain stories and ethereal worlds as well. I find them in the infinite patterns of moving water and wind or in the angle and intensity of light and shadow. The Land in Between is a photographic response to the landscapes of the Middle East where I felt profoundly the uncanny whispers of human antiquity rising up with the dust. In The Syk, I use polymer gravure and chine colle to build layers of texture to reveal cultural and physical geologies in Petra and Wadi Rum.

Inspiration

I am inspired by the sculpture of Camille Claudel and the photography of Francesca Woodman, Ann George, and Josephine Sacabo: artists whose work centers on women's stories and psychological and mythical themes.

Alchemy

All my work starts with a photograph taken with either my Nikon DSLR or Hasselblad film camera. I experiment in the darkroom and with digital tools on the computer. I integrate photography with animation, printmaking, chemical pours and sound. For me the process must be tactile, sensory and gestural as a counterweight to the required technical and digital skills. I look for balance between the physical and cerebral aspects of making art. This alchemy produces, for example, experimental short films with surreal soundscapes such as Boarding House: 2nd Floor. In this work, stills and video of dancer Vie Boheme project mental illness through movement in a space that holds remnants of the past. The polymer gravure prints in Butoh: Love and Hate are layered with rice papers and digital textures to depict the trauma in the bullied body. My Wintereisse collages - inspired by Schubert's song cycle of the same name - layer snow-laden branches, winter skys and frozen waterfall textures, both film and digital.