As a professional employee of Empire State College, I was asked to exhibit my work for one of the featured shows of the 40th Anniversary year long celebration.  After completing my Master of Fine Arts in Interdisciplinary Arts at Goddard College, I was in the process of thinking more deeply about my art and its social implications.  Because of my own personal circumstances of taking care of an elderly mother and beginning to think about the aging process as a whole, I decided to follow an idea of creating work that was extremely personal and visionary in its process.  

The exhibit, "Manipulations and Perceptions: A Self Study" reflects my journey within and without. 

When I look at myself, I am not entirely sure what I see. Is the reflection in the mirror the true me or the one that I carry around in my head? Watching the changes in my body as I age, I consider that I am the sum of my parts. Each one has its own doctor, its own needs, and its own story of how it came to be the way that it is now."

 

The images in this show represent an exploration of photographic media manipulated digitally and with soft colored pencil to create a new perception of the subject. Viewed from a distance, some look realistic while others appear more textural. Upon closer inspection, there is a soft illustrative quality that creates an intersection between reality and virtuality. This series is meant as a study of self, a study of the various parts that make me human, and the study of an inner connection with virtual reality that I continue to unconsciously encounter. 

All of the titles are from Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash.  The influence of this novel on my understanding of virtual reality is evident in much of what I have created here.

Manipulations and Perceptions: A Self Study


                                         

                     "Channeling Quintara"                                "A blinding light from the heavens                "Hiro appears solid to himself,
                                                                                                  shines down on them."                   but everyone else looks like a ghost."


                        

        "At the time, both of them were                         "She shifts into drive and blasts                                "Suddenly it tenses, comes alive, 
    working on avatars.  He was working                           back the way she came."                                            vibrates for a second.
   on bodies, she was working on faces."  


            

             Your eye notices this,  somehow               "He has an important job: Protect the yard."              "It's a gargoyle, standing in the              
                 knows that it's unnatural."                                                                                                            dimness next to a shanty."


                         

  "It's a typical slope of loose dirt and stones that      "Feet parallel and pointed straight ahead,       "The kinds of people who feel most
  looks like it would wash away in the first rainfall."          right foot in front of the left foot,                       at home on the dark side of  
                                                                                         katana held down at groin level                                a one-way mirror."
                                                                                         like an extension of the phallus."


            

    "A speech with magical force. Nowadays,             "And like all Sacrifice Zone fences,            "Just before she kicks her way back into the
  people don't believe in these kinds of things."            this one has holes in it and is               maze, a dustline whips past her, snapping rocks
                                                                                     partially torn down in places."                 and fragments of broken glass into her face."


                       

    "She feels another sharp prick in her arm,              "The silver ribbon of the katana            "But for now, none of the lights are on and
   feels numbness and coldness spreading all                shines up above the crowd."              that's all there is, black steel and slate sky."
 across her body over an interval of a couple of
 seconds as the drug mixes in her bloodstream."



                   

         "Health and longevity became                      "That plague eventually reached                              "She puts the heel of one hand 
                 a thing of the past."                                    some kind of a plateau."                                against the edge of the clay tablet and
                                                                                                                                                                 shoves as hard as she can."



                  

          "He feels a tingling behind his ear,                    "It is big and wide and flat and open,           "The Rat Thing, a tiny dark thing close to the
        anticipating the scalpel and the drill."                  like a nice field for chasing Frisbees."            ground, visible only by virtue of its shadow
                                                                                                                                                         against the flames, and by the chain of white
                                                                                                                                                        sparks where its claws dig into the pavement, 
                                                                                                                                                              makes a tiny correction in its course."