South Bend Composition

South Bend Composition, Spring 2011
Milwaukee Wisconsin
Published by the Milwaukee Artists’ Resource Network and Prime Digital Media

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In my ongoing series of Compressionist prints, I strap a desktop scanner, laptop and custom-made battery pack to my body, and perform images into existence. I might scan in straight, long lines across tables, tie the scanner around my neck and swing over flowers, do pogo-like gestures over bricks, or just follow the wind over water lilies in a pond. The dynamism of my relationship to the landscape is transformed into beautiful and quirky renderings, which are re-stretched and colored on my laptop, then produced as archival art objects. This series follows the trajectory of Impressionist painting, through Surrealism to Postmodernism, but rather than citing crises of representation, reality or simulation, my focus is on performing all three in relation to each other.

In Spring 2011, the Milwaukee Artists’ Resource Network (MARN) – dedicated to “helping the Creative Class of Greater Milwaukee have sustainable careers” – asked me for a donation of 20 small, editioned art works, which were to be sold in order to help fund the organization. Rather than produce one small print 20 times over, for South Bend Composition I made one large scan to be auctioned off at a higher price (45 x 25 inches), then produced 20 unique details from the larger image, each at 5 x 5 inches. All 21 prints were donated to MARN for their benefit auction.