Artist’s Statement

Smash-up/ Mash-up/Cut-up
Bright colors and the feel and look of plastic evoke the promise and freshness of childhood. For the Smash-up/Mash-up/Cut-up series of work I photograph plastic models I had made as a child on poster board in bright day-glo colors. The colors are selected to contrast with the models and also evoke the promise and freshness of childhood. I then smash and rephotograph them. Afterwards I sometimes combine the before and after photographs, other times I use just the smashed ones.  With this destruction of childhood achievement, I am bidding goodbye to that bright promise of childhood. Smashing my past and letting go of my childhood. This deconstruction of childhood illusions results in works using chance and the juxtaposition of contrasting colors that suggest depth to create new art. Evoking something bright and shining from the past though now broken and flawed.