Images from Drew and Whitney's BFA show.

Thanks to everyone who came. It was a great time. And now.... I'm going to graduate.

BFA/HONORS SHOW

Here's the flyer for my show. Drew was kind enough to share his space with me and Maggie was fabulous enough to design my flyers. Thanks so much to you both. 

If you had a mom this beautiful, what picture would you take?

I took these photos over Spring Break. They need some photoshop love but I wanted to get them out there. My mom was my muse and unwavering subject. I'm so happy to have such a willing participant. And her fantastic bone structure and unfailing class doesn't hurt. I'm thinking about continuing this series with her in different situations, but always in fur and jewelry. I would love some feedback.  

Illusional Landscapes

I've been building there "wonderlands from the beautiful homes in DSM, Ia and the rural scenes surrounding the city. These images started as a way to express my own divided home and became an interesting exploration of other people's home life. Thank you to everyone who has been generous enough to let me into their home.  

Mirror portraits

Here is my artist statement and portraits from this series.

Anything but Yourself

“When you look in a mirror, it’s hard to see anything but yourself.”

The mirror simultaneously creates and defines my exterior presentation. I rely on my reflection and my critical judgment as a consistent barometer of my attractiveness. I know how my body looks in every position. I know what expressions my face conveys. I know every unpleasant feature I possess. Above all, I know how to best present myself. Because of this lifelong study, I am fully aware of the person I exhibit in everyday life.

I am fascinated with the idea of “mirror as truth” and how we, namely women, use our studied reflection to determine physical behavior. The young women reflected in my mirror had no idea what they looked like at the moment my shutter clicked. The image reflected back to them was one of me, taking their picture.

The idea of not knowing what you’re presenting to the world is uncomfortable, especially when confronted with a camera. To compensate my models used practiced poses extracted from studied and perfected daily behaviors, using their past mirror experiences to the influence their current mirror situation.

Portraits from a lighting experiment.

These were taken during class while we were playing with the lights. I overexposed the images a bit to get the extremely pale skin and clean background.

The beginning of the beginning.

Hello all:

I am starting this blog to stay connected to you and to myself. I am going to compile and resolve my undergraduate experience within these internet pages and continue to add to this idea in the months and new projects ahead. I plan to include links to my published articles, recent photo projects and spur of the moment snap shots, my videos and my other mixed media work. There will also be updates on my where-abouts and goings-on. 

To begin the where-abouts and goings-ons: As most of you know, I applied to photography MFA programs for next year. Why? Because I've never been good at waiting it out. Because I don't want to compromise myself in this depressingly depressed job market. And because I don't want to loose myself in a placeholder life path. I applied to University of Washington, Seattle; University of Oregon; Eugene; Arizona State, Tempe; Columbia College, Chicago and RIT in Rochester, NY. I hope to hear good news soon. I have big plans cooked up if I get uniformly  rejected including Australia and drowning my sorrows in sunshine.