My images arise from the content and materials that I find in the environment, where I search for the border between harmony and disruption. An image or an exhibition works like an alchemical equation or a poem about a site or an interaction that holds beauty and tragedy. A conflict arises between the subject of the image, be it portrait or landscape, and, in the Chemical Spirit Landscapes, the invading toxin. This is where, through my practice, I seek solutions to imbalance. I wish for my work to reveal the presence of an inner sentient energy, an active relationship between all things, either living or inanimate.
In the Chemical Spirit Landscape series, I have visually layered an oily and pervasive substance upon the landscape to alter the appearance of the subject. This symbolizes an invasive spirit or stain that co-exists with the wild environment. To combine the words Chemical and Spirit in the same breath seems antithetical. I mean to insinuate that the seemingly insentient condition of petroleum-based substances and other contaminating pollutants is, by its own nature, interactive and discursively malevolent. Environmental toxins have substantial repercussions; the human spirit is a crucible of amelioration in its rejection of poisonous ideas and corrosive materials alike.
