I woke up to a surprise this morning! The matte gel dried with a funky wrinkly dry leathery feel, a much more textured surface than my last two pieces using the luster gel. The material is much less reflective which I think adds more to the illusion of skin...I tried out different stitching techniques and less structured patterns and added a different color of thread too...

I'm enjoying where this process is going and it seems to develop farther the more time I spend with it.

Took some self-portraits this past weekend for new material to work with and tonight I worked on the gel transfers for the compositions I picked out. These portraits have a lighter color pallet than my last two works...am trying out matte finish instead of luster so see if it enhances the skin-like quality of the pieces. Interestingly, the matte acrylic gel made the compositions expand when wetted; I'll see if they shrink back to normal size tomorrow. I'm still contemplating on whether I like the larger or smaller compositions....so many questions when you start something new!

Here are a few pictures demonstrating the gel transfer process of my pieces. After my coated photographs are dry I must soak them and carefully take off the paper on the back side so that the gel is all that is left. I am exploring the possibilities of size and how it may influence the intimacy and overall aesthetics of the pieces.

Artist Statement

Death is nothing new to me. After I lost my uncle last year to cancer, I was plunged back into the dark abyss of what it meant to lose someone you love, something so essential and vital in your life that you're lost and have got to find a new ways of living. Memories of losing my father to cancer as a child flew back and opened up old wounds and new questions about my humanity and the connection that I had with my loved ones who were gone. I have found myself time and again in an emotional fragile state in a cruel game of "believe it or not," pulled back and forth between being told that my loved ones are dying and that they are not.

My abstract portraits of the human body became a process of healing, through which I became entranced by the distinct lines and shadows and creases and folds and the sensuality and life that they evoked. The emotional substance of the portraits become the heart of the work itself, expressed through its blend of colors and shadows, blurring the lines between what is known and what is not. Conveying a celebration of life and combining the papery thin fragility of its stature, my pieces transcend between concepts of life and death, the beautiful and grotesque and the mystery that lies behind the relationship between my pain at the loss of people I love and my celebration of living and those who have lived.

New Ideas to play with

I have always stayed within the comfort of printing my photos on paper and leaving it that way, but I think I'd like to play with ways of transferring the same image to another medium that could contribute more to my pieces. Paper is clean and clear and precise, but photography doesn't always need to be that way...not if I don't want it to, not if what I am expressing isn't clear and clean itself...

This week I have been exploring the possibilities of gel transfer. Essentially, I print my images on plain white paper and then transfer the image onto acrylic gel. I'm hoping to get interesting new textures that can play into my work. The gel transfer image is now also flexible and bendable...cool!

I am investigating what the element of size does to my pieces and am experimenting with collaging and stitching pieces together. The texture of the gel transfer reminds me of skin which excites me but I haven't decided how that will affect the content of my work. Photographs that feel like skin? Creepy? disturbing? What??

Will post photos soon...

Last fall I submitted the photo in my last post to the Creative Quarterly Journal of Art and Design and was chosen runner up in student photography! My work wasn't in the printed journal but it was included in the online gallery for their latest publication...first time my work was published outside of college. You'll have to scroll down until you see my name in the list and click it. Check out the link!

http://cqjournal.com/gallery