It was cold, very cold. My finger nails were blue (well maybe not but it makes for a better story) and my fingerless gloves were red like my glasses.
Papa and I were on the bank of the Broad Ripple Canal shooting mallard ducks. I hate mallard ducks.
I was nine years old, awkward, dorky and the new kid in town. My father gave me the gift of a Pentax K1000 and it became the tool to help me interact with others and simultaneously express my human experience.
A dozen years later, while attending John Herron Art School, a professor suggested I search out Mr. Tony Clevenger of Quarter Moon Photography. I did and he became my mentor.
Everything I know about photography he taught me. What I learned was not just to be an assistant, but to become a photographer. With his encouragement and support I quit art school and moved to New York City to pursue photography as a career.
Currently I live in Bushwick, Brooklyn and live and work in my loft which I share with two cats, Eva and Zsa Zsa.
Classical literature and painting has had a great impact on my early understanding of the human condition. Often I incorporate similar archetypes in my work. This year's has included my cats, my taxidermic peacock, head forms and dead animals.
The first attached work is The Capture and Freeing of Me 2010 is my first self portrait and was inspired by Rembrandt's The Capture and Blinding of Samson. It was first shown at the Juried Kinsey Institute 2010 Art Show.
The second, The Lady of Shalott, is a piece inspired by Poet Laurete Lord Alfred Tennyson's poem of the same name. His 20 stanza iambic pentameter masterpiece is my favorite poem. I am drawn to the melodrama and frustration of the beauty of isolation. " I am half sick of shadows, said the Lady of Shalott." Something about this beautifully poignant line has mesmerized me since I have been a young lass. his photograph will be represented by Joanne Artman Gallery at Photo L.A. 2011.
The poem in its entirety can be found here:
Ventiko
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