Embedded

• Artwork 1996-Present

2004 - Present

In Embedded I begin by creating a painting, drawing, or etching portrait. I do this in a representational manner and it is a separate work as well as being used in this larger project. I photograph or scan the painting or drawing, then inject it digitally into a reproduction of someone else’s work. Being in dialogue with other artists from the past and their work is very important to this project and I intend to create an awareness of the entanglement of our remembered cultural past with the present.

By integrating familiar symbols, or the artwork of a familiar artist with the portrait of someone from the 21st century, I hope to make visible an invisible cultural structure: the influence of past traditions on our present. The revelation of this structure is intended to create a visual framework for our fractured, multi-layered present and for the contemplation of the ambiguous natures of originality, clarity of vision, and objective interpretation. These images are developed only as prints and are made into photogravures, intaglio impressed onto inkjet prints, or as inkjet prints.

A long-standing project, I have been making portraits since 1982. In Embedded, I have found a way in which to extend that project by using the portraits that I have developed into a next iteration.