I often paint from observation as a way to form a durational, embodied experience with subjects across time. I consider the act of painting from observation a form of agency to meditate on my body by mingling with other bodies in a culture that is usually distracted from the physical and spiritual realms. Photography coincides with my painting practice and offers a field-based research way of working that records moments at the intersection of my perception, the subject, and the camera. Instant photography emphasizes the space between articulate form and particulate matter by an atmospheric blurring quality produced by the dynamics of environmental light, potassium chemicals and dye layers within the film. I see this dynamic as yet another aesthetic stand-in for the prebiotic soup or ultimate realm of possibility. I think it is important to ponder the relationships of various ways of making an image in order to get at the heart of what it means to reflect on the world through media.
