I started working with my family archives nearly sixteen years ago. It was at this time that I began to use the computer for my art making. My images started out very autobiographical; they were, in fact, documentation of my family history. I began incorporating family images beyond my personal album as a way to create a collective history, one which would allow individuals to bring their own memories to my work.
The 19th-century portrait, landscape, and the digital media help me communicate my interpretation of the human experience. By extracting people from their original context and then placing them into fabricated landscapes, I hope to retell a story of their being, one which allows the images to acquire a life of their own. While the pieces from photographs verify an actual lived experience, the landscape stands as my metaphor for life, demarcating its quality, where the horizon suggests an endless time. Inspired by my personal experience, my images have become a visual diary, a place where I come to terms with life. The specific stories are not necessary to understand the work, but they are what drive their creation.
Questioning Nature’s Way1, 1998. digital C-print. 89 × 127 cm. Courtesy of the artist
