My current work takes inspiration from silent movies, classic American movies and certain elements of popular culture. As an avid viewer of movies, I am fascinated by the way the moving image conveys visual information. This information is so complex and varied that I want to stop the moving picture and observe it more completely. I am compelled to make “still” pictures in order to play with the rich visual effects I observe.
The works are representational; they are appropriated from film stills. In some works the representation is obscured by text, veils of washes or lines resembling image pixelation. The washes and lines mimic the way images in film, video and digital video are broken up in the process of electronic transmission.
These still pictures address the power of media: both traditional film and newer digital technologies create worlds that we are drawn to and absorbed by. It’s easy to become a passive viewer of our mediated world, but we have the power to react to and interpret the layers of media that surround us.
