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Artist Statement-

The first stage of my process begins with my initial reaction to cultural happenings or political developments on the global, domestic, or campus level. I consider myself to be a cultural critic who responds to the things I deem unjust, by using a two-pronged socially concerned approach that is applicable on both the campus and national horizons. Nationally, I have chosen to illuminate the way which recent media conglomeration limits and aids the formulation of public perception. Meanwhile on the campus level, I am intimately confronting the college community using postcards that directly invite the viewer to my interactive installation. Focusing on the lack of Staff representation on the Board of Trustees, my intentions are to raise awareness of the current power structure that severely restricts employee perspectives during critical decision-making here at St. Mary’s College. Overall on both levels, my work confronts the audience with social responsibility.

It was in High School when I realized just how special artistic freedom was to me. After completing a two-year course in graphic design, I found that creating work for businesses and corporations was not exactly for me. I wanted to do explore my own creative process that would not be limited in anyway. My graphic art background provided valuable knowledge of basic design principles that has come to change the way I view the world. Knowing what I wanted, I enrolled at St. Mary’s College college of Maryland. I developed an early relationship with Professor Elijah Gowin who kicked open the door of exploration and experimentation of the every-changing world of digitally based art.

The first few years of my college career was an investigation into the digital medium. I really concentrated on process, and especially the way which digital art is displayed to the viewer. “Martha Stuart Smile, digital print, 2003, is a good example of my exploration into process. The work began as a digital photograph; at the time I was photographing nature, up-close. I then manipulated the image several times before decided on the final look. I later would project the piece onto itself in an attempt to create depth. The experiment was not a total success but it was at this stage of college career where I realized the importance of creating my own Adobe Photoshop pallets. Looking at some of the better visual qualities in painting I created my own pallet that I’ve been documenting and expanding ever since.

“ The unhealthy dependency of humans on ever-larger corporations is institutionalizing itself in a phenomenon that can be described as “growing up corporate.” Children see the world through corporate vistas and corporate values from food to toys, from overmedication to promotionally induced addictions, from not knowing what we own as a commonwealth to commercial determination of beauty standards, from entertainment to overwhelmingly vocational education. When almost everything is for sale, those who have the money control the sale. “ (Nader, Pg. 12)

This Past summer I began to question what exactly makes an artist successful. Creating compositions using abstract forms using a digital manipulation process was a rather rewarding adventure, however I felt the need to create a more meaningful dialog with my audience. Artists hold the unique ability to reach large audiences, change public perception, and to directly ask the questions that effects who we are. I create politically driven work today because I feel a social obligation to address injustices on the global, domestic, and campus scenes. My work has come to mirror my internal activist voice.

Nationally, the recent approval of a January 2004 Senate spending bill makes it easier for mega media corporations to merge. The bill allowed companies to pay overtime to few white- collar workers, and allowed media conglomerates to own more television stations in the United States. This of course could allow for even more selective news coverage, which squelches opposition or dissent. I created “Deliver Us from Evil, digital print, 2004 by using the same visual language and presentation that dominate our public airwaves, my intentions are to bring about questions regarding authorship and sponsorship. I wanted to project a degree of social responsibility onto the viewer while using the same style, and presentation of the media. I choose to use a T.V template as my starting point. At the time I was really interested in how public perception is formed. I starting reading Noam Chomsky’s book “Propaganda and the Public Mind” that really pushed me to question how I personally formulate my opinions according to public perception received on America’s News corporations. After deciding to watch hours of Fox News Channel to better understand how public perception is formed in America, I began my quest. I reacted to a story shown on Fox News, which covered an IMF protest. The reporter never mentioned once why so many people gathered or significant reasons why so many American citizens are protesting. Instead the focus of the report was on possible violence and the police presence that was on hand that day. The text on my image summarized the report “we expect a peaceful protest today but…”

For example, the next work I created using this T.V template (series of two focusing media and public perception) focused on the recent decision by the CBS broadcasting organization not to show what it referred to as an “issue ad” by www.moveon.org directly illustrates suppression of dissent as it pertains to media and sponsorship. In “That’s what they All Say” digital print, 2004, I questioned if we really have the freedom of opinion on our once public airwaves? Money thirsty corporations have transformed our wavelengths into a daily advertising circus. The censored views expressed on our wavelengths in both reporting and commercial ads ultimately are an escort to what I like to refer to as “selective coverage.” I find that many news organizations cover headlines or events unequally; the fact of the matter is that the media often in their reporting techniques take things out contexts by simply not completing or addressing an argument. This is where my work begins. My starting point of national political work is where the media’s “selective coverage” leaves off and where public perception begins.

My quest is to reformulate public perception using the same format. Romare Bearden was an artist who turned to the medium of collage to better communicate with his audience, the American people. Using imagery found in newspapers, magazines, and other publications Bearden began to visually communicate the quality of life on the streets of Harlem, the rural areas of North Carolina, and the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In his 1964 collage, Pittsburgh Memory. He quite effectively confronts the viewer with a sense of community culture. Not only was this work successful in terms of bringing attention to the urban ghettos of America, but it also motivated me to really push the political envelope. In my own work thinking about the viewer’s reaction and emotional connection to the piece has been a starting point. How does the viewer digest the image? Bearden really had me interested in the subject matter, and I started looking at the combination of text and imagery.

My “I guess It’s American”, digital print, 2003, for example was an attempt to question the viewers own position on current-day American politics. The words I chose where ones in which classify people into one of two categories in America. That is either you are a ‘Patriotic American’ who stands behind the decision makers in our country, or you are ‘Terrorist Sympathizer’ who merely questions the motives of the decision makers, or do you? My goal with this work was to force the viewer in to thinking about the differences between the two words and not just how they apply to society, but also to themselves. Which one am I? Bearden in my opinion really questioned the viewer’s position. What about these domestic problems? I found myself asking questions in reference to what’s being done to better these overlooked areas in our country. By focusing on one aspect of culture that is commonly overlooked and exposing over and over again Bearden was able to communicate the social and domestic problems that plagued lower income communities. In my own work what I am realizing is that I need to focus on one political problem and explore it again and again. Then is to better inform the viewer with a defined focus. I feel somewhat connected with the way, which Bearden goes about creating a work of art; I too like this idea of working from found imagery.

Meanwhile on the campus level this year I’ve really been working to change public perception here on our campus. As a socially concerned artist my intentions are to confront as many people as possible. The reason why I intensely focused on campus politics was influenced by my understanding of Bearden, and the way he used art to change the community he lived in. But it was also influened by the Artist Hans Haacke. The work of Haacke’s that was helpful in laying out my campus motivations was ‘Shapolsky et al. Manhattan Real Estate Holdings, A Real-Time Social System, as of May 1, 1971. In this work Haacke investigated the Shapolsky’s family real estate dealings and also mentioned the name of any corporation that had a Shapolshy as on of its officers. Taking information from the New York County’s Clerk’s Office to further investigate the Shapolsky et al. properties in Harlem, Hans was able to accurately display factual information that the viewer could directly interpret as truth. The operation that Haacke investigated was under the control of one group, but that group owned by about 70 corporations who frequently sold, bought and mortgaged the lots. This makes it much more difficult to point the finger at one particular slum-lord. Instead Haacke listed every corporations name along with the buildings photo. The top half of the piece was a photo of the low income housing (site specific) and on the bottom was a listing of the board of trusties along with the corporation’s that owned the lot.

The works where all uniform in terms of color and format and where all hung together side by side in a typical gallery setting. The textual information really seems to go quite well with each individual photo. This was a happening of modern day society during a time in which post-modernism was being described as cooperation between current cultural material, events, and the viewer. Hans directly addressed the viewer with a culturally concerned message in a very direct confrontation mannor. Haacke’s combination of text and imagry drove home his political messages in a quite powerful way.

The relationship I developed with the Staff here at St. Mary's College over the years has been a special one. In my first two years at St. Mary's I worked with the Staff delivering tables and chair to different locations on campus. I started understanding the Staff's relationship with the campus community. Today, understaffing and lack of employee perspectives are the two biggest concerns talked about amongst employees. My process started with a guerrilla warfare style approach that involved a team of concerned people from the campus community who mass distributed informative postcards, which directly introduced my opposition to the oppression of the Staff here at St. Mary’s College of Maryland. The currently assembled Board of Trustees directly oppresses the staff by speaking on their behalf, rather than allowing unbiased direct representation. Postcards allowed me to directly and intimately invite every student, staff, faculty, and administrative member of community to the Boyden Gallery, for further analysis of this unaddressed repression of dissent. Every postcard has on it a set of instructions that can be used for viewing my community-based interactive installation. The postcard challenges the viewer to find the hidden letters contained though out the installation, and place the letters on the empty slots found on the back of the post-card). When the message is solved, the viewer can decide to sign the brief petition (on postcard) in support of the Staff’s dissent and drop it in the petition box located within my installation. The contents of the box will then be collected and forwarded to the Board of Trustees in hopes of creating a better campus community that encourages voice for all.

The photographs I chose for this show where of my father, a Staff member. I created this installation using his images because I've seen how the lack of Staff representation has affected him personally over the years. The entire project was focused on the community, but by using his images the project was no longer just about Staff representation, it was also about my relationship with my father, a Staff employee. I really hope my installation has helped the Staff in their fight for equality here at St. Mary's College. My purpose as an artist is now to change the world we live in.

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