As an undergraduate at the University of Illinois in Chicago, I began working my way through a Bauhaus Foundation program. My early skill set opened the doors to becoming an Art Worker in the wood and metal shops supervising students and maintaining the shop equipment. I developed a slide portfolio which led to my acceptance into the MFA program at The School of the Art Institute in Chicago. While pursuing an MFA, I was able to do art historical investigations in a world-class museum. My ... view more »
Artist Style: Visual: Abstract, Assemblage, Collage, Conceptual, Contemporary, Environmental, Illustrative, Photo-Based Painting, Site-Specific, Surrealistic
Artist Medium: Visual Arts: Acrylic, Aluminum, Collage, Light/Neon, Mixed Media, Photography, Wood
The images from “A Moment on the Walls “are sometimes interpreted by viewers as collage work but could best be described as de-collage. In this sense, the photographic work done in the streets feeds back into my design thinking. De-collage in my photographic works is a state of freeze framing “postings” from a variety of sources including images issued by conceptual artists, gang marking typographic overlays, commercial copy, and zealot’s stickers – all mixing in the harshest of archival circumstances, typically congealing on urban walls rising from the streets.
“Although the first time the term décollage appeared in print was in the Dictionnaire Abrégé du Surréalisme in 1938, it is usually used in the context of nouveau réalisme” (Tate.org.uk) Décollage is an archeological character and is seen as a means of uncovering historical information and in my work, capturing cultural time frames.
My early education found me in close contact with the Bauhaus Artist/Designer Robert Nicole whose compositional work consisted of geometrical arrangements of found paper. This approach formed the foundation upon which I built my esthetic view. I saw through the viewfinder of my camera that the streets themselves provide a canvas for a variety of expressive forms distant from a setting for aesthetic consideration that generally go unnoticed. Such works, however, are only a first step into a deeper exploration of a final aesthetic outcome. The base image and what happens to it are a collection of fragments that seem to reach a visually specific moment for compositional reconsideration. As I see it, it is the role of design to make meaning out of chaos and it is my intent here to repurpose what representative chaos itself has to offer. I accomplish this through photographic capture, editing in Photoshop, and printing on select strata.
Ox-Bow Artist Market – Douglas, MI
MA English Indiana University— Dissertation on Photography as
Psychological Narrative 2001
MFA Sculpture The School of the Art Institute Chicago
Electronic Interactive Photo/Video Installation 1975
BA Graphic Arts University of Illinois Chicago
Design Foundation 1972
AIGA –Association of Graphic Design Professionals – 2023
Member – Alumni Association of The School of the Art Institute of Chicago – 2023
Member – College Art Association—2003-2023
Chicago Artists Coalition—2011-2012
Event Photographer for The Indianapolis 500—1996-2007
