Sunday, October 4, 2009

a statement

I am interested in this, that and everything in between. I wonder why that guy is wearing two different socks? Who kicked over that port-o-potty? Was there someone in it? Why did they use two different types of pavement to build that new road? I always want to understand more about the decisions people make in this world which in turn affect everyone in one way or another.

My day job is a photojournalist, so my instincts as a photographer is to document the daily life of people. It is hard to push away from that at times. In my art photographs I try my best to break away from my standards of a photojournalist by at the very least looking for something that is not normally covered for a newspaper. Many of my art projects are still a documentation of daily life (like photojournalism), but I tend to focus in on the small topics of life that go without notice.

I am in the middle of documenting tip jars and the personalization of them. Some places have simple jars, while others have large tubs with cute or dumb sayings on them to entice the customer to toss in their spare change. Another project is the documentation of what is very close to most people but goes unseen: underground tunnels, area's above ceiling tiles, etc.

Artists Statements seem to be hand in hand with art in general. Always changing, always staying the same. I could look back on this artist statement in 10, 5, 2 years and be somewhere else completely in my mindset as an artists, but to me, that is such a big part of art. Some artists can go about doing the same style and be successful for a lifetime, while other artists always have to adapt and re-think themselves to propel their creativity. I don't know which mentality I will follow, but I doubt many other artists know either.