As I consider the images from my childhood I see a story unfold of how my siblings and surroundings shaped me. The pictures offer a view of our home and my everyday life. I have used this visual record to examine where I come from, to unearth the familial stories that ground me to who I am. My perceived sense of “self” and the physical and emotional ideas of “home” was the foundation I based my personal identity on. The physical home has been lost, but the stories around it remain. These visual histories remain in my mind, existing and evolving in daydreams about their experiences. They flutter on the edge of my memory, almost forgotten, merging and blending together. In my adulthood my relationships with various family members has changed. I have increasingly found that my perception of what occurred in my childhood has changed as well. These paintings are an attempt to revision these dreams and to make sense of their meanings.

For this work I always start with the painting. I don’t have a preconceive idea to start with but work with the flow of paint and color to form a base on the wood panels I use. I know that the images from my photo albums need space and ground to grow among these shapes I create, but I let the painting speak to me first and foremost. When I think the work is complete, I set it aside to dry and mature. If after a period of time (a day or a week) I find it still pleases me I take a high-resolution image of the painting and bring it in to my computer for compositing. I open my painting on my monitor and browse through my photo albums for an image that speaks to the painting. I use various methods of collage and masking to marry the two images together. The results of these endeavors are printed as a giclée on archival canvas and stretched on stretcher bars for the final display.

Pinhole images I created in my studio using a hand made camera that blends the image from 3 pinholes into one composite image. Gelled lighting, natural material, miniature figures and magazine cut-outs were the subjects for the images.

Installation of pinhole imagery printed on large scale transparency film, 36" x 48" to 36" 96". The photographs were a recombination of imagery from family albums to connect them to the stories that my relatives told me about their lives.