Artist’s Statement

Difficult Questions – an artist’s statement

Despite some time without an online presence, my path of creativity hasn’t stopped. Beginning anew seems a consistent part of my path. Because of that, I wanted to create a new site to share my new work and direction.

My work continues to evolve from the beginnings in the world of “typical” photography, where the print was easily recognized as a reflection of reality.

Now my work questions what is possible from a camera and printer. Can a photographic print look like another art form? Is what you are seeing photography or something else? Have I taken up painting? What is going on here?

I continue to create art from the camera that is unique and often does not represent an easily identifiable print of reality. I want to make people question what they were seeing. Is this a painting? or a photograph? What is the “reality” of what I am seeing?

I also want to explore and experience the world that creativity brings me.

Philosophically and artistically, my work makes one question what is seen in my prints. Is it “real” or is it “art”? I believe this is THE important question of our time. Is what I see or read “real”? To answer this question requires questioning, inquiry, listening, and then deciding for oneself.

As can be easily seen, my art is full of questions. Questions have guided my life, and they continue to fill my mind.

I am not a post-modern artist, because I am not so concerned about political, social, or online experiences. I am most concerned with basic basic human experiences in nature and pursuing the appreciation of what is “real” and what is “not real”. I have come to experience reality in nature, but what I express in my art is…well, art.

We are not built to live a life purely in the world of the “real”. We are built to add a sense of meaning to that perception and make our lives from that. However, not knowing what is real and what is our life of “meaningful reality” leaves us living in a world of make-belief.

For most of my life as a physician I strived to see the reality in front of me. I listened and saw the reality of my patients as they expressed themselves. I strived to know the limits of my own perceptions and make an objective decision that benefitted them. Sometimes the partial objectivity was not appreciated. But I was above all committed to sharing that reality as best I could in the hope of being of help.

Sometimes the magic worked and sometimes not. But it taught me well as I have moved forward in my journey into art. For in art, all is perception and opinion.

I have lived my life asking difficult questions. I continue to live with them in my art.