Updated statement

For the past several years animals have been the main subject matter of my work. I have explored dead animal, live animals, cartoon animal people, and farm animals. By exploring different ways of photographing animals I came to the realization that in order to make my photography work I needed to take it to a personal level. My current work illustrates my experiences with animals. This includes pets as well as animals I have encountered in the wild.
In elementary school some kids put a bunch of grasshoppers in my lunchbox while we were out on the playground and told me to go open it. This incident inspired the image "Crickets for Lunch." Color is important in my work as a tool to convey emotion. In Crickets for Lunch I chose primary colors and kept them bright so an element of childhood would remain in the piece.

Just as color is important, a lack of color can be just as effective. My first experience in photography was in a traditional darkroom developing and printing black and white images. Although I have made the transition to the digital darkroom there are many times that a black and white image delivers a stronger message to the viewer than color.

Printmaking shares the tradition of black and white prints as well. I have carried the animal theme into my printmaking work and am currently experimenting depicting the same images as I photograph. The difference will be in the way image is constructed. When I draw an image as an initial idea it is highly unlikely that I will be able to find props that match. It will be a good exercise to explore the differences that photography and printmaking bring to the image making process.

My work is intended to remind viewers of their own experiences with animals, and present myself with challenges of getting the most out of a specific working process.