Art and the brain
I believe my work can actually touch viewers in the most basic way, by firing parts of their brain that are similarly active when they remember or recall a place in their mind. I want it to reach past the literal and touch the underlying neurons that feel and respond in the subconscious.
Remembering and revisiting a place in your mind has a certain rhythm and pace. You can easily zoom in and out, sometimes leaping forward or backward. It is not linear. It feels similar to actual perception, but there is an oddness that signals to the brain that it is actually a memory. I am trying to replicate that feel and cause the brain to fire in a similar pattern.
The mind stores thousands of images and chooses what to remember, and revisits those recollections. Some are random and non-sensical, others meaningful. I’m intensely trying to match something primeval, beneath consciousness but absolutely real. Brain research is undergoing an explosion. By studying memory and cognitive neuroscience, I’m able to recognize and isolate what I see and experience.
I want the collage work to feel familiar and comforting, but without knowing the source or for certain why. I see something that powerfully reaches into the mind, and am trying to reproduce it for today --like a comforting dose of prescription drug for the brain.
The works are cut and pasted piece-by-piece with bits of paper-back book covers, postcards and junk-mail -- as a stand-in for the myriad of bits and slivers of how we experience the randomness of a normal day.
Born in Los Angeles, I live and work in Austin, Texas and New York. Formerly an executive in high-technology, I’ve escaped to the world of art-making and strangely found it more daunting.
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(Click here for) CV
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