I make videos to make sense of the world. It is my language of choice, my portal into the human experience - into connection and transcendence. Creating is a social and spiritual act, those elements being inseparable; just as we must take in sustenance to nourish our bodies, art is essential to nourish the heart, mind, and soul. I could not imagine living sanely without it.

Being an artist is simultaneously a service and a gift, necessary to the survival and integrity of our humanity, as well as to our understanding of each other and the world in which we live. There is a social responsibility inherent in being an artist, whether we choose to take it on or not; the fact that we are affected by and need each other is evident in the minutia of our everyday lives. As we are intricately bound to each other, we each have a basic responsibility to honor and acknowledge our relationships and roles in the world. This is where I begin and what motivates me to do my work.

I also make videos out of a belief in the necessity of beauty and pragmatism. When I speak of ‘beauty’ I am speaking of its transitional nature; of its potential to take us outside of ourselves and awaken something within that connects with the wonder and awe of being alive. Further, this concept of beauty as a transitional phenomenon is grounded in pragmatism; the understanding that we must believe in this world, and see all things within it as Things in-the-making, always holding the potential for transformation, renewal, and becoming. It is in the quotidian where I find the most potent moments of beauty possible. Yet, it is not enough that something is aesthetically pleasing, but that it may hold within it the power to transform the everyday moment into the sublime, as transient and ephemeral as this event may be.    

Each piece that I create is a different attempt to articulate and refine these beliefs. I try to provide some kind of answer or response to the bigger, universal questions of human experience; which include, but are not limited to, mortality, love, identity and belonging, the yearning for spiritual transcendence and connection with others. Indeed, I make this work to bridge my own connections and to find my own moments of transcendence. Other works may address more temporal issues that are grounded in current events or social phenomena. Whatever the content, the goal is always the same: to find hope and beauty in the brute force of reality.

I begin by finding some very simple common denominator, something we can all relate to on a basic level. I cull the images, which will be arranged in certain ways, and effected in certain ways, depending on the needs of the piece. Then I look for those transitory windows of opportunity that will bring the viewer into a new space, one that is familiar yet somehow changed. I look for the moments in-between, the negative space, the open unknown, that ephemeral quality that lingers beneath the surface of things. The end result is my offering to others, my response to an ongoing dialogue.

I see my work in video and film as poetry, not necessarily bound by traditional narrative structures, yet each piece must find its own logic. My background in image-making began in film school, where I intensely studied the works of the masters, such as Jean-Luc Godard, Andrei Tarkovsky, and Agnès Varda. What drew me to these artists were their sensitivities in addressing the human experience, and also their varied approaches to filmmaking. Each strove to discover a new language in film; something distinct and separate from literature or painting, and which created its own semiotic rules and forms. Inspired by this, I have always challenged myself in finding new forms and approaches to working in time-based media. The poetry found in the works of these filmmakers certainly still influences my work today.

The medium of video, something I see as distinct and separate from film, offers new possibilities in visual linguistics. I work within this medium to explore and exploit these possibilities. There are textures and layers, pixels and waveforms, and there are technical possibilities that allow me to work through my conceptual and aesthetic questions with greater flexibility and breadth. It is always a process of experimentation, of pushing boundaries and furthering what I have already done, questioning what I think I know.

Current and continuing ventures in video will undoubtedly lead me beyond single-channel works, as its tangential technologies, such as portable projectors, cell phone devices, web streaming, etc, carry a vast array of potentials to integrate the media I make with the public sphere in more concrete, layered, and immediate ways. Indeed, I continue to look for new ways to expand my approaches and understanding of the work that I do. I see this as parallel to the pragmatic process of Things in-the-making; just as we are challenged to move, grow, and change through the complexities and transience of our lives, making videos will continue to be my way of making something of and for the world that I see; it will continue to be the way I make sense of it all.

 

___Somewhere in California___May 2007______ .