Masters in Photography
Artist Statement Part I: A Safe Place There are many types of recovery and many experience recovery every day. I have experienced many types of recovery in my life, but a safe and loving environment is still the most influential and important to the recovery process. Within this process of discovering yourself, your dreams, and finding the brightest and most colorful layers of your life, sometimes, the most important parts help you stay strong." Through the symbolic meanings in layers of an object (Part I), and the journey to serenity (Part II), I wish to share the layers that make up the interstitial space or in-betweenness. Objects represent memories with symbolism layered between the protective layer of serenity, each one in reach when the time is right. Between these layers lies a transition, which is a chance to find personal strength in recovery. Sometimes a layer that abstracts reality is representational of peace, patience, quiet, contemplation, or the future. Believing in protecting this serenity is Part II. Part II, Protecting Serenity, personified itself as an example of how I keep going. I will give examples of how a space becomes symbolic after recovery. The challenges we face, the places we must go become easier knowing we have the protection of the recovery process and protected by a higher power. We may define the past, and re-surfacing memories, as individual stages in life, as passing moments, but there is so much to share with each other. Our stories in recovery are the discovery of this space within which we are no longer suffering, safe, and protected, and are important to each other’s journey. Each of our own paths provides time to understand what the future may hold for us. In our own safe place and looking forward, to protecting serenity, we find freedom. I look around me and contemplate how my layers could help someone else find a safe place, while always relating to the process of recovery. A higher power watches over, protecting serenity. Branding Statement My work uses the art of abstract linguistic language. I want you to visualize your recovery create a personal recollection of yourself at this beautiful stage. The recovery process imprints on us the face of survival, the relics of a journey, and the continuous motion forward into an achievable dream. Titles: Part I: A Safe Place 1.Practice Flying - (Spiritual) The keepsake I gave you is a feather. Take it with you for strength. 2.Each Pair of Shoes - (Financial) The keepsake I gave you are shoes. May you find your way to a safe and loving environment. 3.Survival is Hope - (Physical) The keepsake I gave you is water. I hope that you drink it and feel well. 4.Your Talents - (Occupational) The keepsake I gave you is a gift to help you finish a dream. 5.The Strength of a Stone - (Environmental) The keepsake I gave you is a tiger's eye stone. May it give you the strength and courage to pull through. 6.Your Story Invaluable - (Social) The keepsake I gave you is the AA Book. May you use it to one day tell your own story to others. 7.Close to Dreaming - (Intellectual) The keepsake I gave you are glasses. I hope that you continue to read, ponder, and learn. 8.Sense of Freedom - (Emotional) The keepsake I give you is a heart. This is the feeling of love, the only way to be free. Part II: Protecting Serenity 9.Finding the Way- (Physical) The way we move throughout this life reflects the choices we've made. 10.Waiting for Time- (Environmental) We can live in a world of freedom if we first seek that freedom in our life. 11.Moving in Courage- (Social) We put away our differences to heal, to love, and to better our lives. 12.Un Café- (Financial) Each step we take in the right way determines the dream we will have. 13.Watched Doorway - (Spiritual) In our journey throughout life, we find blessings that become our angels. 14.For Unsaid Reasons- (Occupational) Letting life work one day at a time, one thing at a time. 15.Recognizing- (Intellectual) We must remember to nurture our minds with nature’s gifts. 16.Breathing Embraces Nature - (Emotional) We should act and use our love for the most precious things in our lives.
Project Description: The project is medium-based and relies much on the memory of the found objects that are in the abstract images. The phenomenon of the transient, safe place is an example of guidance, survival, peace, and contemplation. I use my Nikon D5300 to help me through the process, with a tripod, a macro lens at times, and a remote. As a reflective concept, the images themselves will create a clarity of the self within the layers of foggy materials. I use light to illuminate the subject of contemplation in a lightbox and use layering in photoshop which helps communicate my visual intentions. Finding the safe liminal space within spaces is created with abstractions between the true meaning behind the objects I was photographing and the reality of peace within. This is a linguistic project by abstracting the reality of each object, covering them in a blanket of contemplative thoughts - that recovery is possible no matter where you are from, who you are, and where you have been. The spaces of the liminal recovery process create a safe and reflective place. Find something about yourself or about recovery in these images that help you to see what your layers are.