I’ve been collecting things for most of my adult life. It began during my years in college to save money on sculpture and still life materials, and later in the mid 1980’s to furnish my first apartment. The joy and excitement of "finding" that treasured object from a Good Will, Salvation Army or other thrift store, got me interested in collecting objects from the past and from my childhood growing up in Cleveland. Old toys and mid century modern furnishings were early additions, but as I aged my collecting habits evolved resulting in a large and eclectic collection. Much of the collection was purchased, found, acquired as gifts, or part of a family estate. I still enjoy a good thrift or antique store, but Ebay has made finding treasured objects and hard to find items easy.
Assembling a still life from the collection seemed a natural first step and way of storytelling using the objects as symbols and visual metaphors while reflecting on my life experiences. Every still life is photographed many times, each exposed with a different area of light then assembled in Photoshop. Often the final photographic image is a composite of more than 30 individual photographs.
Freak Show Series
This most recent series of still life photographs were initially inspired by an invitation to exhibit in an art show entitled, “Playing with Dolls”. My work up to the invitation did include occasional crumbling doll heads, model skeletons, medical anatomy models and such, so it seemed like a good fit for the show. I often begin a project looking through some of my favorite books as well as my still life objects for inspiration. I have collected many books and images of sideshow art and the history of carnivals so this is where I began. I’ve always been fascinated by the imagery of freak show banners and the design and colors of the local county fairs.
I decided to build a stage and use dolls to recreate the scene of some of the freak show banner imagery. Drawing from my personal experiences from visiting freak shows at county fairs, I began assembling objects, building figures and putting together a story. After months of collecting and assembling the still lifes, I started photographing in total darkness, exposing one small area of the still life at a time making over 100 photographs. Shooting on a tripod assured all the photographs would allign when assembling and masking them together in Photoshop. These are some of the final results of this ongoing series of Freak-show Still Lifes.
SPIDORA MEETS DEATH MOTH
from the Side Show
Series
HEADLESS WOMAN from the
Side
Show Series
POP-EYE AND THE THIN MAN from the Side
Show Series