Reflecting

This body of work emerged from my explorations in the many waterfront areas of Maryland and other places. The plays of light, color, and form that flicker across moving water are mesmerizing when witnessed in motion, but they offer other opportunities when frozen in a split second of time. I tend to be a control freak, carefully composing and controlling all aspects of the images I make, but photographing these constantly changing scenes requires me to relinquish control to chance and spontaneity.

Our Looming Ground Zero

Our Looming Ground Zero is a multimedia installation consisting of 108 framed photograms, created by exposing light sensitive paper to sunlight, juxtaposed with 108 black plumb bobs. Traditionally, plumb bobs are commonly used in homes during construction to measure the flatness of the floor. Here, they echo the annihilated and flattened land of Hiroshima which Ito’s grandfather witnessed. 

Our Looming Ground Zero raises an ephemeral gravesite built on top of an already existing mountain of sacrifices - including people, landscapes, and ways of life - in which our current state of peace unsteadily rests upon. Here, I offer a chance for us to come together after experiencing the recent large-scale global trauma to reflect on the ramifications of our current course, our shared losses, and to submit a prayer for the future.

The Intimate Landscape

Like many people, I love to visit national parks and monuments, natural landmarks, and other scenic places; however, those sites have been photographed millions of times and I am challenged to transcend the traditional "postcard" image when photographing in these places. I slow down and take the time to isolate details in a way that renders the scenery less recognizable, by focusing on the unique graphic qualities in the more intimate landscapes. Skies and horizon lines are often eliminated; reflections may be inverted, and the results become more abstract.

Polar

Several years ago I visited the Artic regions of Greenland and Svalbard, and then traveled to Antarctica a year later. These unique opportunities  allowed me to study the forms of polar ice and water in icebergs and glaciers. It was a stark reminder of how fragile the polar regions are, and how rapidly they are changing. They are some of the most magical and unspoiled locations on earth, and yet the evidence of global climate change is apparent. I sought to capture images that simultaneously portrayed the majesty and fragility of these icy domains.

Riverbed 2020

I have been painting exclusively in my home studio for the past year. Covid-19 stay at home restrictions lead to a decision to work exclusively in water based paint for as long as I continue to paint inside of my home. I began several projects in acrylic on paper that explore the same ideas and imagery pertaining to climate change that I had been working with in my most recent oil paintings.

Ice Floe 2020

I have been painting exclusively in my home studio for the past year. Covid-19 stay at home restrictions lead to a decision to work exclusively in water based paint for as long as I continue to paint inside of my home. I began several projects in acrylic on paper that explore the same ideas and imagery pertaining to climate change that I had been working with in my most recent oil paintings.

Eye who witnessed

Eye who witnessed is a compilation of C-print photograms depicting 108 eyes. This collection of 54 American Downwinders and 54 Japanese a-bomb victims stares out unblinking, homogeneous and anonymous. 

Sheba

This was my first pet portrait done from a photograph, commissioned by a friend for his parent’s dog Sheba. I had previously only done one pet portrait before in the late 90’s, based on a painting my mother had done of her cat Magic in the 1970’s.

The first challenge with this piece was figuring out how to properly represent the image on a smaller and simpler scale (8x10”) than the larger and much more complex Saint Christopher portrait that I had just completed, and still be able to capture the essence of the subject.

Context-sensitivity

Context-sensitivity refers to the proposition that there exists a disparity between understanding a concept in isolation and understanding the same idea or object when used in context.
Ex. A vast difference exists between a golden bamboo rhizome's beauty when employed as the model for a sculpture and that of planting that same rhizome in your garden. Golden bamboo rhizomes are beautiful to look at but invasive and highly destructive in the  environment
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