General Entry - Emerging Talent Awards

I'm at the time in my life where my kids are more independent. I recently was able to move my studio out of the basement into a grown kid's bedroom with natural light. The walls were an inspiration. They are filled with the fingerprints of years of use, and push pin marks from posters and other paraphernalia. The subject matter I photograph is from my immediate surroundings. It is framed by this wall; floating, animated and trying to move. The computer drawing adds noise. Nothing is stable. I am interested in this shifting and lack of permanence. Being pulled in different directions is a common feeling with a job, raising children, and being an artist. This may be a part of why my art making combines different materials and processes. I want the drawing and the photography to hover in an interesting balance, playing off each other in unpredictable ways. My background is in drawing; previous work has combined sculpture and photography. The first 7 images come out of the idea of 'parallel play,' a term in child rearing when kids happily play side by side, but not with each other. More and more kids of all ages engage in parallel play with their electronic devices. I am practicing parallel play with toys and artifacts from my kid's as well as my own childhood.