Inspiration:

Through landscape, I explore the difference between lens-based looking and seeing with the natural eye. I think about the many ways the world is mediated in order for us to apprehend it- through the sense organs, the mind, the paintbrush, and the camera lens- and reflect on how these various layers of mediation affect our sense of place, time, and memory.

Process:

I am currently exploring two ways of working:

In the first, I sand down old paintings and turn them into new ones by applying thin veils of paint, allowing the memory of the older work to show through. I make a sequence of new paintings of one location, but at various places and times, and then assemble the slightly misaligned images together so they match the phenomenological mode in which they were perceived.

In the  second, I photograph a location, then trace the image on an iPad to create a hand drawn photographic “negative” which I then print as a cyanotype positive. This lengthy process slows down my seeing and prompts me to look deeply at a digital image of a place and translate it back into the organic realm of sunlight, eye, and hand.

Subject:

The landscape of northern New York State is a panoramic sundial within which one can clearly observe the passage of time. Having lived in the Adirondack and Hudson River Region for over fifty years, the mountains, hills, and shores are the perfect location for my musing upon place, time, and memory.