Artist Statement

I entitled my “fantastic” montage, “Peaceful World.” It consists of bright contrasting colors to give a vibrant and surreal effect. When you look at this work, the viewer immediately knows that there has been manipulation, but I tried to fit the images together in a complimentary manner. I wanted the doves to appear irregular in scale but natural in motion. I positioned one of my doves as if it’s landing on the rock pile that I built in North Carolina. I used a setting on my camera to highlight the blue in the Colorado sky. The clouds and snow compliment the white doves. The tiger lily from my grandmother’s backyard adds a sensational splash of orange to the piece.

I entitled my “realistic” montage, “Small of the Wild.” I wanted to present to the viewer a familiar scene but twist it in an interesting way. The woman walking the miniature elephants is my mother, who often walks down Park Avenue with our small dog. Most people have seen the women who carry their portable pooches in their purses, or even seen them push tiny dogs down the street in strollers. I tried to play on the idea of our society’s obsession with portability and fashion. The viewer is well aware that this is not a realistic scene that they could see at the present time, but in the direction our society is heading—it doesn’t mean that a scene like this could never happen in the future. The absurdity is realistic in both concepts of tiny dogs in strollers as well as tiny elephants on leashes.