born wild Print

Born Wild is comprised of a photograph, acrylic paint, and resin. The base materials for the work consist of a canvas that provides the platform for the adhesion of a rolled photographic canvas, a fine art photography print. The canvas print is adhered to the base canvas using a clear acrylic varnish. Acrylic Paint is added and the work is cemented in resin. This specific piece of art was physically put together in an outdoor studio and there was moisture during the overnight drying process for the resin, as a result it dried with a foggy, matte finish instead of the typical glossy look. I was terrified when I walked outside the morning after pouring the resin to find the entire collection of pieces I was working on completely white, I thought I’d lost years of work and so many hours, days, weeks of time and money. I stayed calm despite the terror and experimented with different materials. I added clear spray paint, which by some miracle allowed the original work to show again. The colors ended up coming back through in a vibrant, vintage fashion, gold spray paint was added along the edges and dripped onto various parts of the piece along with more acrylic paint for the final result. This piece along with the others from that day were most definitely a happy accident. These pieces are the only ones in my collection that have the durability of resin with a matte instead of a glossy finish. This photograph for this piece was taken in Arches National Park, near Broken Arch, in the early spring of 2018 when I was on a roadtrip with a friend. The human depicted is myself, it is a self-portrait collaboration captured in conjunction with my friend, taken where I saw an opening in the canyon that resembled a womb. As soon as I saw this rock formation, I knew that I had to shoot there. There were so many metaphors and so much beauty pulsing through my mind. We had a long day of hiking, shooting, modeling and playing while having a beautiful picnic on the way to Vegas. I wanted to photograph my friend in this space, but she was tired of modeling after our long day, not to mention it was her first time nude modeling in her life, so I had to be the model in this one. I set up the frame on my camera, but because of the rocks, it was impossible to set up a tripod. I asked my friend if she could hold my camera and hang off the side of the cliff to get this shot for me. The result was breathtaking. The warm colors of the rocks, mirroring the color of our skin, provides a deep sensation of oneness and of our resemblance to mother earth. The image was captured in 2018, however the mixed media piece was created in 2020.