Artist Statement
I just finished my third photography course at Saddleback College and I enjoyed the way the professor pushed us to think more creatively. He began the semester by challenging us to not just produce pretty pictures, but to produce art and to think of ourselves as artists. We had to write an artist statement and we revised it throughout the semester, and he said we would continue to do that as long as we evolved as artists. It’s hard for a 61 year old IT geek to think of himself as an artist, but I’m trying and I’m making my statement public as a way to reinforce my newfound title of “artist”. I put some of this statement below on my Decay portfolio, which was my final project for this class.
I believe there is a creative and animating force that underlies the universe, and in my faith tradition we call that force, "God". The ancient Celts developed the concept known as a "thin place" where the natural and spiritual worlds come closely together, and a spiritual experience can be realized just by slowing down and being present in that space.
With my photography I strive to capture thin places that I believe are all around us every day. It might be the beautiful symmetry of a bird’s wing, a vibrant sunset, a wave crashing on the beach or a dappled pattern on the ground caused by light filtering through the gnarled branches of an ancient oak tree. I love photography because it causes me to be mindful of my environment, looking for those moments to capture, those thin places to share with others.
Lately I’ve been intrigued by a less traditional view of beauty and I’m excited to see how this newfound focus develops. Evolution is also a force that shapes our world and there is a beauty to be found in the cyclical nature of life and death. Life is beautiful, but eventually it decays, which leads to death, which leads to new life. Our very bodies are comprised of matter that came from the death throes of stars millions of years in the past. We build magnificent structures that begin their inexorable decline the day after the grand opening, and we see the evidence of that today in the ruins of civilizations that thought they were eternal.
We can experience this cycle in our own lives as well when we experience a loss. A chronic illness forced me to retire early from a career I loved but that led me to photography which likely would not have happened without the decaying of my body and the death of my dream job. It can also be found in the spiritual realm for those of us that are people of faith. Many of us go through a deconstruction phase where we question (and often discard) assumptions about our faith, and it can feel like our faith is dying. In my case, it was a healthy decay of nonessentials to my faith, and I came through that process with a reinvigorated faith that is more robust, less brittle and focused more on loving God and people rather than clinging to doctrine and dogma. Decay is the transition process from life to death and I want to capture the beauty in that process that leads to new life.
But that’s just my current interest and I’m confident that as I evolve as an artist, I’ll discover new areas to explore that I can’t even imagine right now. The world is a magnificent place that teems with life, and I look forward to exploring and sharing its beauty for many years to come.
