After graduating high school outside of Woodstock, NY, I attended SUNY Purchase College as an undeclared student, but was shepherded into the School of Art+Design at SUNY Purchase under the tutelage of George Parino and his critique classes. In his class, mediums of all kinds were presented and torn down in harsh peer critique sessions. Through necessity and course structure, we chose artists we admired and appropriated themes and aspects of their works to build our own unique styles in the medium(s) of our choosing.
My photomontage style developed as a blend of David Hockney’s polaroid and 35mm photomontages. They are constructed by taking adjacent pictures with a camera and arranging them in a grid – edge to edge – seamlessly. In this way I am able to flatten or enhance the depth of a scene in an almost cubist manor, as well as picking and rearranging objects and actions.
Another artist that has influenced my work is Elliott Landy. I worked for him for a number of years in varying capacity, cataloging, editing and retouching his wonderful portraits and concert photos of musicians of the 60s. Elliott was the official photographer for the Woodstock ’69 concert, and as a great observer of human nature he was able to create photos that really penetrated the character of his subjects. I strive to create similar parallels in my own work.