Artist’s Statement/ New Work in Performance Art

Why performance? Because, for me, the process of performing is more direct, physical and honest than anything else. Far from the beaten track, I follow the conscious and unconscious authentic movement of my body to see where it takes me. As an artist using the medium of my body, it’s exhilarating to be the gesture…to embody the feeling of art as experience.

In my new series, CLOSE ENCOUNTERS WITH MYSELF,
I appear as the main character in Fellini-esque fantasies performing psychological tasks such as measuring the immeasurable with a ribbon, taking a walk amidst the changing colors of my emotions, playing with shiny objects of my desire and literally diving head first into the unknown.

Setting the self-timer on the camera for 30 seconds, I perform unscripted, until the shutter clicks, capturing an arbitrary moment in time. Because of my background in printmaking (etching, silkscreen, collagraph, monoprint) I often layer the performance with drawn and painted imagery. The process is a seamless blend of the figure, printmaking and photography and yields psychological dramas born of close encounters with myself.

CLOSE ENCOUNTERS WITH MYSELF can be viewed at Saxonville Studios in Framingham, MA by calling the studio at (508) 877-4730.

One of the performance pieces, MEASURE, can also be seen in the Boston Drawing Project curated by Bernard Toale and Joseph Carroll. Interested persons can visit the Bernard Toale Gallery, 450 Harrison Avenue, Boston, MA during gallery hours (Tuesday – Saturday, 10:30 a.m. – 5:30 p.m.) and view the flat files in the Drawing Project Room. Directions are on the web at www.bernardtoalegallery.com or call (617) 482-2477 for more information.