Artist Statement
Early Instagram Practice
Part of the Back Story
My early Instagram posts are standalone works of art created specifically for Instagram.
I paused my studio practice between the years of 1995 and 2015 to focus on raising my children.
During this time I would draw, see art, and take photographs.
I jump started my studio practice again in 1995 with the "Series 1, Haiku Paintings”. Art-making for me at that time involved the exploration of a visual language derived from a semiotic approach to combine images and understand their meaning.
I created compositions using three images which represent a simplistic "happy-face". This emoji / meme image consisted of two eyes, one mouth within a round head.
By doing this I was channeling a painting I created while a student at Pratt Institute during my senior year of 1983-1984. During that time I was working through a whole mess of "New York School / Abstract Expressionist" works trying to come-out the other side. When through the muddiness, thick paint and scraped surface a happy-face emerged like an apparition in the painting.
Now this happy-face had a different meaning back then, in that pre-PC and social media context world we currently live in.
By bringing the framework of my happy-face forward into this time, I discovered a format to explore my deep post-modern tendencies of juxtaposing of images to create new found and bespoke meanings that are unique to the viewer.
Through combining images to represent a face, I wanted to give something back to anyone that endeavored to gaze at my work something in return. Where by the painting was gazing back at them.
The early inspiration for these paintings was derived from my drawings, iPhone photos I captured, and images discovered on Instagram.
During a visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in March of 2016 I found two portraits that spoke to me and photographed them. Instinctively I juxtaposed them together and posted them on Instagram. I could not ignore my natural tendency to create a story based on a visual reading of juxtaposed images. I then entertained to explore these concepts further.
I noticed how naturally I tied together the images . Similar to the way one enters a room and assess a situation.
This combining of images also activated the pleasure senses in my brain. Crossing again with my "post-modern" sensibility and love of David Salle's work. Whose sensibility strikes a deep cord within me and brings me back to memories of post-modern youth. Whose evolution began in 1980s contemporary artworld.
Through this philosophy of image making and exploring meaning, I re-discovered my way into my studio practice.
My Instagram "Juxtapositions" evolved in tandem with my "Haiku" painting series.
Instagram Art Making Practice:
While observing Instagram I noticed the use of collages comprised of various images. Upon investigating further, I found an application that could allow me to create photo collages on my phone from photographs in my digital picture library.
During some downtime at Art Basel, Miami Beach 2016, I began to create photo collages of photographs I had taken during my stay.
Having an affinity for the combination of images in my "Series 1" paintings that were underway, I began utilizing the digital image collage application to combine and juxtapose digital images and create unique image combinations.
All of the images are created on my Apple iPhone using the native Instagram image posting editor tools.
Thereby my Instagram practice of making art as defined by my postings is derived from my Series 1 paintings.
My Instagram practice of art-making exists as one of my unique art-making practices.
This approach to making images strikes deep a deep cord in my picture making sensibility. Feeling that I am a child of the post-modern evolution in the contemporary art of the 1980s. I re-discovered my way out of pausing my studio practice for 20 years with these early Instagram "Juxtapositions". This thinking evolved in tandem and was influenced my "Haiku" painting series.
To explore nearly 300 Instagram Juxtapositions I created scroll deep into my Instagram feed. When you see them...you will know that you found them.
Hope you enjoy them!
Instagram Titles:
After receiving feedback following several postings of my Instagram images, a suggestion was made that I should title these pieces.
From that day forward I titled the pieces with the date they were created.
The names associated with the titles are mainly my poems or statements that were inspired by the unique image I created.
Attribution:
I make a great effort to attribute all images that I screen captured from Instagram. Attributing them to who posted the image, the creator of the source image, and the related names of the people, institutions or places the image captures.
Instagram Art Making Practice Intent:
It is my intent to show my unique Instagram artwork constructions, either as a sequential feed or as standalone displayed images in a gallery setting.
They stand as original artwork, with the accompanying attribution detail.