Esoterica (2022-Present) is an ongoing series of Serigraphs which combines collage, illustration and digital art.

This series numbers 45+ and explores Mythology, Symbolism and Religion through the lens of contemporary print media. When I look at print media, I see examples of these three tenants diluted into a commercial form; sometimes it seems intentional, more often it seems unintentional. I ask myself, “How did these symbols end up diluted tools of commerciality?”

With Esoterica, I am attempting to bring these profane images into a sacred context. To move these contemporary commercial symbols back into a space where it can be reflected upon. For me this is an attempt to reclaim these sacred symbols and perhaps allow the viewer to peer through the lens of corporatism, so entrenched that it swallows what many of us hold so dear.

This series grew organically out of my collage practice — “Why?”, I thought, “Should I waste 1/2 of the magazine only going after images?” Followed by “How can I best use the rest of the magazine to make something interesting and creative?” I routinely describe this to my customers as “The most difficult thing I do” — because I am wildly dyslexic and finding these poems amongst a mess of usually poorly written copy is a chore for me.

What I find fascinating about Redactive Poetry, is that so often the messages I glean from the pages of these magazines is in stark contrast to the messages those magazines profess to support. I can’t count how many times I find venial and oppressive messages in women’s magazines — who outwardly support ‘female empowerment’ — I ask the question about how these signs can be best perverted from their original intent, and into something the original author never (consciously) intended.

These works are all Permanent Marker on Magazine Pages dated between 2017 and 2018 totaling 85+ images.

Derivatives (2014-2017) are a series of analogue 35mm color photographs combining ideas from collage with technical expertise in analogue process. Derivatives examines the relationship of stock, and pop-photography with photographic craft and fine art.

I was motivated to create something ‘original’ from the deluge of mediocre pop-photography being taken by amateur photographers in the 00′s and 10′s — which seemed unoriginal at best and outright derivative at worst. I asked, “What would I need to do to take something lacking in originality and push it into a space where it became wholly different?”

So I began assembling a database of digital photography from across the internet,  which I felt lacked purpose and inspiration, to highlight the various trends in popular photography. I selected photographs from this database at random and used them generatively as the basis for analogue works. I was essentially ‘scrapping’ the internet much the way Generative AI does — a whole decade before GenAI existed.

Derivatives numbers 65+ and was primarily produced during a residency at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts.

Looking At: Looking Into is a series of short motion pictures on the subject of Mediated Voyeurism. Mediated Voyeurism is the act of consuming voyeuristic content through means of a 3^rd party, most typically through a mass media outlet such as: television, radio, newsprint or internet. The films were presented within hand-crafted Mutoscopes, a primitive exhibition device popular before the advent of the film-projector. Mutoscopes are essentially a box with a ‘peep hole’ attached. A viewer looks into the device and turns a crank which animates a  motion-picture. Looking At: Looking Into will paint a typical portrait of Mediated Voyeurism from today’s media. The viewer will look at these shorts and instantly recognize them as familiar, something they see everyday and are likely complacent with. The film’s presentation within a Mutoscope greatly amplifies its already voyeuristic nature, because of the divergent formal properties Mutoscopes have over traditional media systems. Mutoscopes require the viewer to be an active and willing participant in the content they are consuming, by choosing to look into the ‘Peep Hole’ the viewer is committing themselves to a voyeuristic act, and by turning the crank the viewer is actively engaging with the content inside. By making the viewer an active participant in the voyeuristic content they are watching, I am inciting the viewer to be accountable for the content they are consuming. This makes Looking At: Looking Into a commentary on the viewers complacency with Mediated Voyeurism. It is my hope that the combination of voyeuristic content and a participatory means of consumption causes the viewer to reflect on their role in the proliferation of Mediated Voyeurism, and maybe re-examine it.

BLUE HANDS IS A SERIES OF 6 SHORT EXPERIMENTAL FILMS PRINTED BY HAND USING AND ANTIQUE PHOTOCHEMICAL PROCESS KNOWN AS THE CYANOTYPE. THE FILM IS ANTIQUARIAN IN NATURE AND HARKENS BACK TO A TIME WHEN CINEMA WAS VERY DIFFERENT THAN WHAT IT HAS BECAME TODAY. THE 6 FILMS MIMIC A STYLE OF FILM KNOWN AS ‘ACTUALITY FILMS’ A BODY OF WORK SPANNING 25 YEARS BEGINNING IN THE 1890′S IN WHICH FILM WAS A SIMPLE DOCUMENT OF THE WORLD AROUND US AND NOTHING MORE. BLUE HANDS IS SIMILARLY SIMPLISTIC IN IT’S REPRESENTATION OF CRAFT PERSONS PREFORMING THEIR PARTICULAR CRAFT WORK. THE REPRESENTED ARTIST REFLECTS MY OWN CRAFT WORK AS I SEE THE APPLICATION AND PRINTING OF EACH OF THE 11,000 CYANOTYPES TO BE AN EXERCISE OF CRAFT (IN RELATION TO FILM-MAKING). IN TOTAL THE 6 FILMS SPAN 4 YEARS OF WORK BEGINNING IN 2008 AND ENDING IN 2012. BLUE HANDS WAS PRODUCED THROUGH A 2010 EMERGING ARTIST PRODUCTION GRANT FROM JEROME FOUNDATION.