Growing up in America, we in the lgbtq+ community had to alter the media fed to us to make it relatable to our lives, more so if you were of color. Movies, tv shows, books, religions and cultural norms have told us the stories of men and women getting married, settling down, having children and retiring. Many find these tropes aspirational yet they were never meant for us. Amurqa is a series of work exploring the lives of people who live within the rainbow & choices they made because or in spite of “the American dream”. AMURQA started in 2014 with the sculptural work of a very talented artist and friend Maxine Blomberg. Thank you.
2013-2016. this project stood the course over a span of 3 years and shows the true diversity and beauty of the male red head. i named the series gingerly, due to the nature of the approach needed for this task. only a couple of these gents had sat for a photographer before let alone in the buff.
2014 the trials and tribulations of my alter ego making their way down commercial street in ptown. all shots are available light. the head piece was a collaboration from boston sculptor maxine blomberg. inspiration was a little mix of where the wild things are and bronte.
bang bang 2014. "this series follows the narrative of a set of dresses reaching enlightenment… being worn by a bachelorette party in ptown . the pilgrimage would visit many of the towns places of worship, where they participated in the local rituals and aggressively sought out religious leaders. the only thing that made this day trip more memorable was the song of the summer playing on the radio, bang bang. "
growing up in south texas i was regularly bombarded with reminders of the extremely conservative culture i was surrounded by. i thought i had a pretty firm grasp of logic and modicum of morality, but found myself baffled over most of the views around religion, guns, and all things queer. the cult like idolization of fire arms gave those who felt weak in the world some semblance of comfort. believing that one day only the most fervent believers would have their souls plucked from this planet leaving shells of humans all around our hell scape; it’s a hysterical visual till you remember that’s the very reality created by our many mass shooting. we were also growing up in the 80’s & 90’s were the media representation of being gay was firmly around AIDS and the demonization of all things queer.
i moved to boston in 1996 and started frequenting ptown in 2001. it was such a culture shock for my brain i’m sure i acted a fool all over town, and i was sober so i have some sympathy for those that lose themselves in the freedom. i still refer to this place as “over the rainbow”, like some magical imaginary place that only exists in a fairytale. there is also an unspoken energy about town where you often find yourself on guard to handle some level of entitlement. it’s a resort town so the main source of life is tourism in one way or another. then there were the bachelorette parties seemingly visiting town like a they would a petting zoo with little to no self-awareness.
with all these heavy experiences and ideas floating around my head i often turn to humor to make the conversations more accessible. also life in ptown is very "choose your own adventure" (much like this work) so enjoy your soundtrack.
growing up in south texas i was regularly bombarded with reminders of the extremely conservative culture i was surrounded by. i thought i had a pretty firm grasp of logic and modicum of morality, but found myself baffled over most of the views around religion, guns, and all things queer. the cult like idolization of fire arms gave those who felt weak in the world some semblance of comfort. believing that one day only the most fervent believers would have their souls plucked from this planet leaving shells of humans all around our hell scape; it’s a hysterical visual till you remember that’s the very reality created by our many mass shooting. we were also growing up in the 80’s & 90’s were the media representation of being gay was firmly around AIDS and the demonization of all things queer.
i moved to boston in 1996 and started frequenting ptown in 2001. it was such a culture shock for my brain i’m sure i acted a fool all over town, and i was sober so i have some sympathy for those that lose themselves in the freedom. i still refer to this place as “over the rainbow”, like some magical imaginary place that only exists in a fairytale. there is also an unspoken energy about town where you often find yourself on guard to handle some level of entitlement. it’s a resort town so the main source of life is tourism in one way or another. then there were the bachelorette parties seemingly visiting town like a they would a petting zoo with little to no self-awareness.
with all these heavy experiences and ideas floating around my head i often turn to humor to make the conversations more accessible. also life in ptown is very "choose your own adventure" (much like this work) so enjoy your soundtrack.
2011-2012. i started becoming obsessed with how different people look when you remove all pigment from their face. this series is me documenting people painting their entire bust in white body paint without a mirror. everyone took different approaches to the process and the results were delightfully varied. the entire study had a 45 person participation and all amassed from my friend base.
2011-2012. this study was based on the human face and how much it changes when a subject is clothed versus nude. the subjects were shown flash cards with emotions written on them and then photographed and then told for the first time what the series of work was based on . if they continued they stripped down and were shown the cards again. all together there were 32 subjects in this study which yielded 6 diptychs each.
2009. I thought that we needed a visit back to our childhood and the joy that came from playing dress up with your friends. the carefree nature of imagining an alternate universe were we could be anything we wanted to be. welcome to our play time.