In my artistic practice, I focus on process oriented, narrative based Site-Responsive projects that are a fusion of Environmental, Digital, Performance and Installation Art. At The Savannah College of Art and Design, for the first time in my life, I learned to have an artistic practice. Professor Nell Keyes allowed us complete freedom in the development of our projects, and, crucially, required us to research and to document our process. For me, this lead to the development of an artistic practice that dwells outside the scope of traditional disciplines. My works incorporate the use of multiple mediums built upon a foundation of site-responsiveness, storytelling and process. I always ask: How can I best convey the concept of this work? incorporate multiple layers of meaning? which medium/s? Since graduation, I have continuously created, honing my process and practice and devoting my life to building my oeuvre.
I developed my first Site-Responsive art project in 2014 at SCAD Lacoste, France. The only requirement of the project was a final exhibition. This allowed my finished work to emerge naturally and intuitively through an authentic response to place which I cultivated through a daily intentional walking as art practice. I allowed myself to explore and express with complete freedom, transcending all boundaries of what I had been told art should be. The exhibition had incredible responses, with the French residents thanking me for enabling them to see their world, their village, their home in a completely new light.
Unmasqued was a project that emerged out of attending an online class with Bryan Melillo, of Parsons School of Design, NYC, online with Morbid Anatomy and Joanna Ebenstein during the pandemic. Bryan also encouraged me to follow my process, out of which emerged a new and innovative practice, Performance Art with a drone.
At the time, the Black Lives Matter protests were in full swing in LA, and my friend Badir McCleary was documenting the events with his drones. I was so stunned when I saw his imagery and films. I had no idea that emotions and energy could be perceived and felt from that height. One day I had a eureka moment, and I asked Badir to collaborate on a series of Perfomance Art films. We completed two at the time of Bryan's class. They are included in the Unmasqued process book, because they were unequivocally a response to the alignment of my participation in the class, the BLM protests, and residing in Laurel Canyon in Los Angeles during the Covid lockdown.
I added the image of the third Performance Art Film (2022) to show how a totally different project (than the one I was pursuing) can emerge out of my Site-Responsive practice. You can see how I continued on with Unmasquing after completing the 2020 films with Badir.
In total, 9 resolved works emerged from this class: 1 costume, 2 Performance Art films, 2 photographs, 1 mask, 2 stop motion films and the process book. As previously mentioned, Badir and I are continuing with our collaboration that emerged out of Unmasqued, with the intent to complete our drone Performance Art series called, "Earth, Air, Fire, Water Aether."
My art practice truly thrills me!