Spider's Web PhotoGraphic

“I see beauty everywhere I look except my own reflection” The Abomination

My camera is my way of showing the world how it looks through my eyes. Often through a lens of the duality that I find in everyday life. I gravitate towards imagery that evokes multiple, often contradictory, emotions or ideas or ideals that create a sort of uneasy balance or symmetry. After reaching the limit

s of what I could create within budgetary constraints I began to branch out with digital compositing so I can take my photography in directions I could never accomplish through photography alone. Being a digital composite artist who is a photographer first gives me the unique ability to photograph the elements of an image exactly as I imagine them in the final piece. Having a background in oil painting I approach even non composite work with the eye of a painter, brushing the image bit by bit to fit my perspective of the world. I loved painting more than anything and then after having nearly every painting I had ever done and all my supplies stolen, I gave it all up. It was a was a long time after that incident that I eventually found photography and I realized I never lost my desire to paint I just needed a different brush. I was gifted a hand me down camera and my passion for art was reignited. So, I embraced the camera along with the high school nickname Spider, that I seemed unable to escape, and decided to pursue life behind the lens full time. After spending 3 years at a portrait studio I decided to seek a formal education and enrolled at the Art Institute, but that would change after nearly dying in a car accident. My injuries included a severe concussion, blood clots in my lungs numerous fractures and ligament damage and worst of all a shattered femur and knee. With incredibly slim chances of walking again I was resigned to spending life in a wheelchair. After my initial months of recovery and adapting to life in a wheelchair I transferred to Webster University to finish my education while undergoing a three-year journey to restore my ability to walk including 3 complete rebuilds of my leg and countless hours of physical therapy. My year and a half in the wheelchair and additional year plus on crutches gave me the shift I needed to see the world from all new angles and perspectives. My art is a constant evolution of these changing viewpoints. My renewed mobility has also given me the chance to explore the world again but with my renewed artistic vision.