STATEMENT

Photography is just the beginning when I use a nearly extinct Polaroid SX70 camera as the first tool for my many layered photo collages. My inspiration sometimes comes from the actual world where the documentation of experience serves as the foundation of the collage. I can also be inspired by dreams or a response to an environment, a memory or an emotion. The work I produce often contains recurring themes of childhood and nostalgia. Though inspiration sets the piece, I let my camera guide me. Laid out in large multi-image canvasses to small one-image pieces, I peel the Polaroid film from its encasement and alter the images through a variety of applications. I etch into the emulsion. Using charcoal, pencil ink transfers, markers, paint and a number of other mediums, I alter the image front and back. By grouping the images, the collages grow from their manipulation, always keeping the ubiquitous Polaroid grid as anchor.