statement

My interests as a visual artist, educator and curator are strongly influenced by themes relating to transformation, memory and perception, identity, and place. Through the use of mixed media along with experimental and traditional techniques, I incorporate a variety of working methods into my photography, prints and books.

In this series of photographic images I am exploring themes of personal and geographical landscape from an alternative point of view. Utilizing my body and photographic chemistry to create direct imprints on film, the resulting negatives are then scanned, cropped and printed as large-scale digital prints. Visually, the "body prints" mimic aerial landscape photographs, where scars, hair, or wrinkles are reduced to black and white lines that emulate land and water formations. Through this comparison, a correlation is drawn between the earth's surface as a record of natural and man made alterations, and the body (specifically the skin) as a record of individual experience.

Skin is a reflection of a person in that it denotes age, culture or race, well-being, as well as identity. Fingerprints, which appear on the hands and soles of the feet, do not change over the span of a lifetime offering one method to distinguish one individual from another. Scarring, hair growth, warts, calluses, wrinkles, and other dermatological variations reveal a range of information about who we are. Our skin provides a record of experience and a means to navigate a particular kind of personal history. In a similar vein, the surface, or skin, of various terrains within the landscape offers a comparable history of the earth's lifespan. Natural and human influenced alterations present a way to detect change, both gradual and immediate. Geological and man-made structures, water formations, erosion, and weather patterns alter the natural world, creating a lasting mark imprinted onto the environment.

bio

born: 1973, Coronado, California

education

Arizona State University, MFA, 2007
University of Washington, BFA, 1997
Maine Photographic Workshops Residency Program, 1994-5

selected awards/honors

Faculty Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity Grant, College of Liberal Arts, Wright State University, 2012
Juror's Award: Honorable Mention, "No Mirrors", Rayko Photo Center, San Francisco, CA  (Juror: Ann Jastrab), 2011
Juror's Award: Honorable Mention, "Spots of Time", 930 Gallery, Louisville, KY  (Juror: Mitch Eckert), 2011
Artist in Residence; Obras International Centre on Art and Science Foundation, Estremoz, Portugal, 2010

selected publications

The Elements of Photography, 2nd Edition; Waltham, MA: Focal Press p. 338, 360-363, 2011
The Book of Alternative Photographic Processes, 2nd edition; Independence, KY: Delmar Cengage Press p. 287, 2008
Hayden's Ferry Review, Fall/Winter Issue 41; Tempe, AZ:  Arizona State University p.30, 46, 142, 143, 2008
The Strange Case of Maribel Dixon, Poems by Charles Jensen; Tucson AZ: The New Michigan Press, cover photograph, 2007

selected solo or two-person exhibits

Ann Miller Gallery, Wittenberg University: One Thing Becomes Another, Springfield, OH, 2010
Tilt Gallery: Bearing Still, Phoenix, AZ, 2008
Vespine Gallery: Emergence, Chicago, IL, 2007

selected group shows

Red Filter Gallery: Alternative Views, Lambertville, NJ, 2012
Rayko Photography Center: No Mirrors, San Francisco, CA, 2011
Haas Gallery, Bloomsburg University: Adapting Spaces: A Photographic Exploration in Four Acts, Bloomsburg, PA, 2011
930 Gallery: Spots of Time, Louisville, KY, 2011