ARTIST STATEMENT

In working with digital image making mediums, photography, film and other related media, I find the ability to create altered states of reality through these mediums to be quite powerful in creating a contemporary discussion about the politics and realities of current culture. Along with these interests being expressed though my work, they stand as prominent issues in my own academic studies and critiques on art.

With the ability to manipulate the photograph on digital image manipulation software, I am able to create false realities that appear to be convincingly real.  My process usually consists of taking existing photographs I have or appropriating ones from the Internet and collaging them or inserting them into an existing or created environment, in order to create discussion around the created reality and the existing one.  Some issues that occur frequently in my work are the social politics of space, man as animal, utopia and dystopia, social divisions and culture, and nature contrasting culture/ the urban environment. These issues and similar work processes are also expressed through other related medias I uses, such as film and photography.

In my own academic studies, these issues are also prominent, along with other issues involving those of race, the lenses of western culture through which we view other cultures, women’s involvement in culture and art, cultural and artist trends, and environmental issues in the arts. I am also very interested in art process, including how people in each artistic field create and view their art, and issues concerning them that are being expressed though their art. My interests also extend to art history, in studying art movements and important artists of the past, in order to gain a better understanding and view on the art movements of today. I am interested in the fields of art history, artist specialization or curatorial studies as a profession, so I try to learn as much about different arts and theories around art as I possibly can.

Michaela M