Come along on a journey to a pastoral paradise called Arcadia. A world where all who inhabit it live in harmony with nature. To keep the balance and insure tranquility, a sisterhood of overseers was formed to rule and protect it. These are the Guardians of Arcadia.
Join me on a journey down a road through a new dimension, To your right is hope and aspiration. To you left is darkness and fear. Ahead there is an iron gate. Your imagination is the key to opening it.
Three Minutes Till Midnight
The future is in the passed. There was a time between 1919 and 1969 when the world became fascinated by the future. This span of fifty years marks a time when there was great focus on the modern industrialized world and the seemingly great future that lay ahead.. A new artistic movement called Art Deco flourished throughout the 1920s and thirties. Art Deco style was applied not only to art but also architecture, furniture design, fashion, advertising and many other areas. Art Deco was minimalist and streamlined. Technology excellerated in the WW2 era of the 1940’s with the introduction of rocketry, jet planes and atomic energy. Science fiction fantasies of outer space and flying saucers captured the imagination in the 1950’s. The mid-century modern style emerged. It featured clean lines, organic shapes, and bold geometric or abstract shapes. It was especially popular in roadside motels and drive-in restaurants that celebrated our obsession with the automobile. It all culminated with the moon landing in 1969 when what was once science fiction became science fact.
Optimism toward the future faded after with an ever greater awareness of the unintended consequences of boundless scientific achievement. Pollution from chemicals and a throw-away society dampened this half century focus on futurism. The Viet Nam war was painful evidence that all we had achieved contributed few solutions and brought increasingly greater destruction in the power struggles played out in war and politics.
My childhood and teens were in the later part of that period and I remember it with great fondness. In my seventies now, I look back and reminisce when I can truely say, “the future is in the past”.
This series is inspired by the one hundred year old cinematic masterpiece of the same title from renowned German film maker Fritz Lang. A dominant theme in Metropolis is the fear of industrialization and mass production. This fear, especially in works that venture into futurism and science fiction as Metropolis does, portray a struggle of humanity versus nature.
This series of photo montages explores various aspects of perception and reality. At first glance these images appear to be an imagined look into the future. Closer examination however, reveals that they are made up of mundane subject matter like bridges and highways. Aerial views and photo manipulation challenge the viewers perception and suggest an alternate reality.
This series draws attention to present day fear of Artificial Intelligence and our dilemma in understanding truth and what is real.
Experimental and new directions in portraiture.
