I discovered photography as a young child. My Mother would let me shoot with her Kodak instamatic camera. Images were made of the family cat, my tree house, the yard and self-portraits. After completing my Master of Fine Arts in photography from The University of Florida, I moved to Houston Texas to pursue my art career.
At Florida, under the direction of Graduate Research Professor Jerry Uelsmann, I was encouraged to seek alternative avenues of expression with photography. My work was based on the manipulation of traditional silver halide photography, the inclusion of the more ancient encaustic wax process and a three dimensional presentation which was often a light box. I found that this combination of materials provided me with a pallet, both visual and physical, that satisfies my interest in the more immediate and irrational substructure of the subconscious aspects of image making.
The purpose of this practice was to explore the mysterious relationships between the photographic process and the flat surface of the photograph through handwork and mixed media. The combination of these flat, transparent and physically encrusted surfaces were the three basic issues that I considered to be the underlayment of my work at that time.
For several years I was hired by ad agencies, record companies, magazines to bring this edgy, rough, manipulated look to the clean surface of a page.
