Process - Contemporary Printmaking

  Pushing the boundaries of printmaking, I am constantly developing new ways to size, manipulate, layer, and blend my photos in Adobe Photoshop to create depth, perspective, texture and lighting similar to that of classical mediums. I developed a process that I refer to as contemporary printmaking. Every element in my compositions, from the tiniest flowers to the contour of the landscape, is a photograph--sometimes 40 or more individual photographs--that I took, prepared and positioned on a digital canvas. The physical artwork is a pigment ink print on a fine art watercolor rag.

  My collection of thousands of images I've taken represents thousands of moments across time and space as I traveled in search of answers I believed I would find only far outside of human constructs. As my exploration progressed, it wasn't enough for me to capture reality; I was compelled to interpret it. Even as I was processing a massive volume of new information about the world and aggregating it toward my own survival, I began aggregating the camera's snapshots of reality to represent a new reality that would transcend the time and space in which I felt myself limited.

  To deconstruct one of my photo compositions is to unearth the artifacts of my past. Close examination of these artworks in my chosen medium is a sort of archaeological dig. Under the surface are discoveries that can inform our view of those who experience American society as a set of constructs designed to keep them relegated to the margins.