Artist Statement
Years ago, when I was living in Kalamazoo and deeply involved in the art community, I was working with letterpress and film photography. My influences at the time were Edward Hopper, 1930s European typography, Ansel Adams, Dorothea Lange, and Walker Evans. I was desperate for a view camera and actually managed to get my hands on one for a day. I knew at the time I couldn't buy it, but I just wanted to try it. I found out much later that my behavior that day was in line with historical photographer behavior: I photographed my backyard. (Admittedly, to be fully consistent I should have taken a shot out my window.)

It was hard to let go of that camera because I wanted to do for Vermont, what Adams had done for the west. When I did return to Vermont in the late '80s, I set up a darkroom, but immediately began to worry about the chemicals going into the ground. (I am in the boonies with your basic leach field.) Fortunately, day job stuff took over and 60 hour work weeks left no time for artistic pursuits. So everything visual came to a complete standstill.

Digital Photography

Then came digital with no chemicals. And with digital came a multitude of possibilities for image manipulation. I absorbed the art world's views on such manipulation and made my own decision: image manipulation offers opportunities to increase the clarity of communication. My lifelong obsession with reading and learning had already taught me that communication is at the top of the assimilation pyramid. I would do all I could to not be some ". . .mute inglorious Milton." I saw image manipulation as the logical extension of Dorothea Lange's statement that "A camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera."

My Vermont images use what remains of an "old Vermont" to try to make people think about the future. Likely that is a future that will make the past disappear from memory within a couple of generations from now. Except as it will live in books, in museums, or thankfully on the internet. Many thinkers have commented on our country's eagerness to cast aside the old in favor of the new. In medicine and other sciences this is certainly commendable. In environmental and community matters, it may not be quite so commendable.

I am struggling with communicating the effects of urban sprawl, mega-farms, and commuting on everything that has made Vermont "Vermont". With what happens when masses of people move to Vermont just because it is a Vermont of small villages, small population, town meetings, and a state with easy access to incredible scenery and outdoor recreation. But, a vocal number of these newcomers soon are advocating for road-paving, easier access to shopping . . . in short, everything they moved away from.

Since I really don't like being hit over the head with "philosophical directives" in art, much preferring subtlety, I find it difficult to communicate fact or ideas which, to me, are not subtle.

Rural Urban

In early 2009 my work took a natural split in direction, though both pointing the same way. To my Rural images of loss, loneliness, and abandonment, I have added Rural Urban. Images of small towns with their commensurate human scale. The feel is quite different from urban scenes in New York or Chicago. And, nobody bothers with these simple street corners awash in parked cars, power lines, and commercial signs. Or, stark and empty at 5 a.m.