“Control” (2023 – present)

 

 

Much of my recent artistic inspiration can be distilled down to the concept of control. I am interested in the spectrum of control that I currently witness in American society – from a tightening in certain facets, to a celebration of surrender in others. As an art educator, I contemplate the origins of current trends that de-prioritize technical mastery of mediums. Despite omnipresent smartphones producing constant access to mountains of information, I am fascinated by art practices that rebel against this readily-available resource and celebrate a lack of control. I am driven by concerns of control that women have over their bodies, that trans individuals have over their health, and that conservative governments are placing upon education. I also examine the role that control plays in my personal life, scrutinizing what is within my power to change, and what I need to let go of. I aim to condense all of these complex issues into a simplified visual form – one which also addresses control as a method of creation.

In this series I set parameters for the creation of cameraless chemigrams / lumen prints. While the chemigram process is typically viewed as liberating and loose, I am enticed by attempts to tame its unpredictable forms into strict geometric confines. Each piece is a document of sincere efforts to harness a rectilinear shape, as organic “mistakes” intrude. I create a fixed and stable center chemigram, while allowing the outer bounds of the paper to exist as an unfixed lumen, which is subject to change in various environmental conditions over time. I engage in a dialogue with these two processes, as they tend to buck any intentions of what the artist wants the compositional outcomes to be, instead bending to the will of light, gravity, temperature, and humidity. I create these works in outdoor workspaces to invite such atmospheric elements to have a say in the resulting images. These works are both a practice of learning what can indeed be controlled, and an acceptance of seeking solace in that which cannot be controlled.