artist statement

I have an abiding interest in urbanism, transitional spaces, and change.

As this moment slips away
This ongoing Vancouver-based project delves into the interplay between perception and emotion in the urban environment. I am interested in how this interplay affects our sense of self and well-being, as well as our ability to navigate the balance between individuality and collectivity.

I am experimenting with reflections, filtered views, transparency, layers and colour, using a combination of digital and analog techniques. Black and white photographic images are digitally layered with images of ink paintings on paper. The paintings enhance depth, complexity, mood and atmosphere through the use of colour, texture, light and shadow.

The final images are printed with pigment ink on archival hot press cotton paper.

Passages series
How do our cities and urban environments affect how we think, feel, and behave? This question guided me during my one month residency in Montreal in Fall 2019. To explore the concept that cities and people are systems which continually interact with each other, I walked through Montreal’s neighbourhoods with my camera to absorb and process the people and places I saw. I best observed the interplay between people and public space on the Metro transit system as they navigated their days. These locations also tied into my ongoing interests in transitional spaces and change.

Post residency, I began to investigate the concept of embodied cognition: how we perceive the world around us with all of our senses, as well as through movement, and how we process that information, both consciously and nonconsciously. This concept resonated with me and informed a way to express what I had perceived and felt as I absorbed the city.

Back in Ottawa, I worked with a combination of analog and digital processes: I made ink drawings on sheets of polyester film and digitally combined these with photographic images. This effectively added a layer of light, shadow and texture with the goal of integrated, expressive and intensified images. I then produced monoprints on matte polyester film using an acrylic medium transfer process, resulting in transparent images on translucent film. I enjoyed the push and pull between control of the process and surrender to the imperfections that inevitably happen. These marks are integral to the work and, combined with the transparency of the work, contribute to a sense of transience and ambiguity.

This second phase of the project carried through the first several weeks of the pandemic in 2020. I found it eerie to be immersed in my images, shot months earlier, of places that were now mostly empty. There was a sharp contrast between the photos of groups of people and those of solitary individuals. I felt this juxtaposition spoke to exactly where we were in those early weeks of the pandemic shutdown, often on our own and isolated.

When functioning at their best, cities are places to connect and engage. They encourage us to interact with one another, engage with the spaces that we inhabit and to become enriched by them. In the city, we can enjoy feeling a part of a bigger, vibrant whole.

Disconnection from others seems to lay underneath many of the issues we face today. We risk becoming insular and out of touch with each other when our urban neighbourhoods are designed to be enclaves for people like ourselves instead of seeking out, encouraging, and experiencing diversity. We risk losing touch with the natural world if we do not place a high value on accessible green spaces, water, and public parks. It is fundamental that our cities foster connection and engagement, not disconnection and alienation.

We are living in an in-between state, a passage, a time of transition and uncertainty. In the midst of upheaval, can we reimagine our cities through fresh eyes?

Here and Shadow Self series
The shadow figures for these interior series were shot in refracted and reflected morning light. These pieces consider liminal - in-between - states: sensory thresholds, and transitions such as between night and morning, sleeping and waking, one phase of life and the next. While we might experience an ongoing sense of fluidity, the title suggests we are most likely simply ‘here’. These are monoprints on matte polyester film made using an acrylic medium transfer process. I have drawn into the nearly complete pieces with rubbing alcohol, which dissolves the surface colour. These marks imply that we are looking at the image through a plane such as a fogged up mirror or window, while adding depth and surface interest. I continue to be drawn to the ephemeral, fluid, layered and ambiguous, and to working with the language of light, shadow and reflection.

Morning, 4th & King series (large and smalls)
The images for this series were shot outside the train station in San Francisco on two January mornings. These pieces focus on people in an in-between state, travelling to their day. I was drawn to the life in these people on the move, and the simultaneous sense of individuality and collectivity. I was also compelled by the play between the morning light and long winter shadows. It’s like a dance or a conversation, a layer that we walk on and through, and are a part of.

Between, In Transit and At the Station series 
These three series were created in a time of abrupt personal upheaval, possibility and expansion while living out of the country for several months. I began to investigate liminality - the sense of being between things - by exploring liminal places, such as train stations, passageways, doorways, windows.

This work is a combination of analog and digital processes: digitally shot images become manually made monoprints on matte polyester film using an acrylic medium transfer process, resulting in transparent images on translucent film. I enjoy the push and pull between control of the process and surrender to the inevitable imperfections. These marks are integral to the work and, combined with the transparency of the work, contribute to a sense of transience and ambiguity.

The monoprints in both In Transit and Between series are mounted with small nails to float in the custom finished wood box. Painted rice paper is collaged to the box directly behind the prints; these coloured shapes create a glow through the monoprints.