When my wife died from cancer in 2019, I began using things she left behind as materials for my artwork. In this piece, I used her overhead projector and transparencies. I printed out a series of statements expressing my experiences and use them to tell a story.
Overhead projector and transparencies Single channel video with sound
I create experimental films, installations, and objects that challenge the belief system I inherited from well-intended people which I believed furnished me with the “right” answers, behaviors, and expectations for a good and proper life. Applying the theory of cognitive dissonance as a philosophical framework to this messaging helps me appreciate why it is so difficult to accept new information incongruent with one’s previously held beliefs.
Through parallel efforts of self-reflection, research, and creative practice, I reexamine my upbringing and the ensuing insecurities, contradictions, and feelings of hypocrisy. My work aspires to transform my fears, anxieties, and mistakes into meaningful visual expressions; informed by and in response to work by contemporary artists and my personal experiences with relationships, death, and grief.
Fueled by the practice of forgiveness, both of myself and others, I believe the creative process is helping me become a more compassionate person who is willing to reconsider, release, and accept my past and welcome new internal and external perspectives. Likewise, I hope presenting my artwork affords viewers an opportunity to consider my struggle, and question whether and why we may have common or divergent life experiences and perspectives.
