the project is a street friendly version of the current work i am doing (statement below)....i propose to photogcopy the original images in black and white @ 60% and bind them in booklet form....the original images are 11"x 11" altered (bleached, dyed and/or fogged) black and white prints with text....i am not looking for realistic reproductions of the work but will instead aim for unique images....in the originals the text is written within boundaries defined by the image....in the smaller reproductions the text will necessarily be proportionately larger and take on a different tone than in the originals.




HOW TO LOCATE

The booklets will be distributed inside and outside the whitney museum (at 945 Madison Avenue & 75th Street).

The project will go from the first week of April through May 26.



ABOUT THE ARTIST

I have shown my photographs and assemblages in Massachusetts, New York and North Carolina. Born in Morehead City, North Carolina I received BAs in Communications and Business from NC State University. While studying photography at Massachusetts College of Art in Boston I studied under Barbara Bosworth, Abelardo Morell, Laura McPhee and Nicholas Nixon.



ARTISTS STATEMENT

At the most basic level the photographs in my current work are about the self awareness of flowers; the flowers in these images know that they are pretty or beautiful, that they are desirable or lack in some quality generally associated with a flower. I use language to illustrate their self awareness and explore flattery and narcissism, that of the plant as well as the onlooker. It depends on the viewer‚s perception whether the words represent the thoughts of the flowers or are half of a dialogue between themselves and the flowers. Ultimately, that rests with how attracted one is to a particular image. One thing is for sure, these pictures aspire to make the viewer want to engage with them.

Certainly there are possibilities for different kinds of interaction with the images I make. Some people may feel superior to the flowers by being able to read their thoughts. Others may elevate the flowers by allowing a dialogue to occur and thereby completely personifying them. Alternatively, some folks looking at the images may not perceive they are interacting with plants at all but rather feel as though they are engaged with art hanging on a wall. In these cases the artwork is fishing for the compliment.

All the photographs originate from two negatives printed right side up or inverted. The negatives were made inside a tulip magnolia tree in Central Park with a portrait camera. The resulting images are printed on different papers, using a variety of chemicals and procedures. Often the paper is fogged intentionally and then bleached and/or toned. The words that are part of the pictures are drawn from the personality that emerges from each individual flower image during the process.