artist statement

I have had a serious interest in photography for a number of years, both as a viewer of other artists’ works and as a creator of my own images. Using a thirty-plus-year-old Canon FTB with a 50mm lens, I enjoy making photographs that include strong colors and textures, as well as interesting graphic design and compositional features. I often focus on a small portion of a larger scene or object, transforming the concrete entity into an abstraction. I have been fortunate that my professional career in education has afforded me the opportunity to travel and live in a number of foreign countries where I have recorded many of my images.

Recently I have been concentrating on a project I call “urban wall art.” This consists of finding and photographing graffiti, bulletin boards, and posters in cities around the world that have appealing textural, graphic, color, or compositional qualities. Some images focus on written words, some on human faces or figures. By limiting other images to a small part of an entire wall, compositions of abstract art emerge from the urban landscape. This project reflects a refinement of trends seen in my earlier work and has been a very exciting experience for me.