“Hello Darlin',” from Nonsensical Nonsense, black & white/C-41 35mm film, 2022

I created this work by layering photographic film that I had photographed on a multi-lens toy camera with a 35mm negative that I had scratched on. I scratched the emulsion off of the film to form the words "Hello Darlin'." The toy camera images depict a waterfall and a Dalmatian walking.

I prescribe no conscious meaning to this work. I believe that all artwork has meaning. While I may not intend to convey anything in particular with this piece, my subconscious is influencing the creative decisions that I make.

For example, when I initially became interested in the idea of tourism in my "Touring Tourism" series, I only realized later that I was interested in the topic because I had grown up in a tourist-saturated city in Southern Maine. Similarly, work that is made intuitively is inherently impacted by the subconscious of the artist. I am interested in how life experiences impact the choices that people make, which is in part why I majored in Sociology in college.

Below is the artist statement for the photographic series "Nonsensical Nonsense":

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“Nonsensical Nonsense” is an ongoing photographic series where I explore intuitive, randomized artmaking. I do this through both physical and digital manipulation, drawing from an archive of imagery containing both my own and borrowed imagery. Working intuitively using an archive of my own photographic work often involves selecting multiple negatives, creating multi-exposures, scratching the negative, and painting the negative. When I borrow from others, it often involves creating something new by either physically or digitally combining and collaging imagery from contemporary magazines and historical archives.

I was inspired to start this series by the nonsensical nature of Dada art movement. Specifically, collage artist Hannah Höch is a significant inspiration for my whimsical darkroom creations and collages. This series is where I allow myself to be creatively free and experiment.

I am interested in how viewers respond to artwork that has no intended meaning. What personal meaning do they find in it, if anything? What does randomized imagery remind them of? Creating work primarily influenced by my subconscious reverses the typical narrative and focuses the attention on meaning prescribed by the viewer, rather than whatever meaning I might want to convey as the artist.