Monsters at Home.

In this strange year, we have become strange creatures, trapped in our houses, fearing contagion, contemplating our mortality. In this pandemic time, inspired by science fiction B movies and television, I began making this series of self-portraits. My monsters are quotidian, constructed of household objects and time, and layered on my own face and body. I have done extensive research into the history of cinematic practical special effects, and I have used those techniques to create these characters. My ongoing work of the past few years suggests a children’s television show that might have existed between the channels, a reconstructed diary of channel surfing from half a century ago. Deceptively simple landscapes evoke the solitary worlds we all crafted as children, where we had only our emotions -- fear, power, loneliness, curiosity -- to map the terrain. There were no monsters in my childhood landscapes. But as my own body transforms and decays into middle age, I am struck by the terrible beauty of monsters, the imperfections, and asymmetries, the surprises in the mirror. Those same emotions that guided my exploration of the imaginary faraway now confront this more intimate unknown.