Self-Transcendence 1/15 - Limited Edition of 15 Photograph

Inspired by literature and film—writers like Flannery O’Connor and Raymond Carver and writer/directors like David Lynch and The Coen Brothers—I make moody and mysterious, sometimes quirky or irreverent works including, photographs, timed pieces, objects, and texts in order to delight, surprise, agitate and connect. These are the tools with which I examine different aspects of life: love, injustice, despair, redemption… To communicate through these tools requires a reckoning with, not only the problematic qualities of the medium of photography and how an increasingly image-based society consumes and processes nearly constant visual messaging, but also the constraints and challenges of modern communication, and, beyond that, the problems and power of language itself. Like many, I crave a more compassionate and honest world, but I reject a didactic approach to achieving it. It is more natural for me to think like the writer, to embrace fiction as a vehicle for exploring certain universal experiences and the multifaceted nature of reality; and like the director, to find an impactful way to connect with an audience. Technology—including my iPhone, digital camera, and post-production software—plays a role in my work, but a more physical, analog approach is equally important to my process, whether that means completely wrapping our piano (and my husband) in yarn for a photograph or pulling the pages out of hymnals and pasting in new prayers for the trans community. I sew, cut, and glue, build props, and make sets and clothing, not only to use in creating the work, but also to display as part of the installation. Though the work is ultimately the result of lengthy and obsessive thought on a subject, in the making of it, I relish opportunities for experimentation and play.