Connection
Artist Statement
Connection
As humans, we have an inherent and deep longing to connect with others, those who have come before us, those around us, and those who will come after us. We connect with them by way of what Carl Jung called the collective unconscious. This is where our base, primal reality exists. It is where I wish to share the experience I feel as I create my art. I seek to explore the connection of being human by using the five sacred symbols expressed within my images.
These symbols, the circle, the square, the triangle, the spiral, and the cross, have a universality of meaning, and are universally recognized. These symbols are the basis for my project, working in the unconscious mind to link us with the rest of humanity.
These shapes are found in common ways that we often do not notice or recognize, but they still influence and imprint on our psyche. I have photographed these shapes as I have seen them in the world around me. I have combined them in layers, manipulating the light, contrast, and color of the original images in a variety of ways to create and enhance conscious and unconscious connections via the collective unconscious.
Marcel Proust, a French novelist said, “The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new lands, but in seeing with new eyes.” Photographers like Alfred Stieglitz and Aaron Siskind, whose works exemplify this concept, inspire me. I want to encourage this act, the act of seeing with new eyes. My project, “Connection” is truly about seeing anew, by looking within.