Dante Today
This work is about the surrealism and alienation of living in our fast-paced, modern world: the influence of commerce, commuting, and competition in the late 2oth century. I am interested in how today’s technology allows us incredible daily experiences with such regularity that we no longer differentiate between what is natural and what is layered with artificiality and irony.
I enjoy the paintings of Edward Hopper with his psychologically loaded portrayals of isolated figures, and the work of Francis Bacon with his portraits of modern business citizens at their limits. In my own work, I photograph people surrounded by the metallic environment of this machine age, particularly in transit, whether in airplanes, busses, trains, or subways. These are moments in which we isolate ourselves from others, lost in thought, dimly aware of life around us.
Each image begins as a photograph I've taken during my travels which I alter through painting and drawing. With these marks of my hand, I imbue the print with gestures of human emotions: signs of life caught in today's hectic world. Toner is selectively applied by hand, and montaged elements are stapled to the surface of the photograph as a means of adding further surrealism and physical dimension to the print.
