An Introduction to my Capstone

I welcome, with an artist statement…

        My work investigates the emotional and atmospheric language of architecture. Through photography, video, and multi-media processes, I explore how built environments shape perception, memory, and behavior. I am particularly interested in the difference in comprehension between spaces we inhabit daily and those that are spatially and experientially removed from our everyday lives.

        In my photographic practice, I often remove the human figure from the frame. By doing so, I allow structures, surfaces, and light to carry emotion independently. I am drawn to architecture not as static form, but as an active presence – something that regulates us quietly and persistently. We are inseparable from the environments that shape us, yet we rarely step outside of them long enough to recognize their influence. When spatially removed from a place, like photographing London rather than Louisville, for example, I find that I am able to perceive atmosphere more fully. Distance creates awareness. Time creates attentiveness.

         Atmosphere, to me, is a spatially extended feeling: something sensed collectively yet experienced individually. A bridge, a façade, a clock mounted on a public building, these elements hold histories and rhythms that exceed their physical form. In current unfinished pieces I am working on, I am incorporating images of clocks to emphasize time as both structure and as a regulator. Architecture and time function together; they organize human movement while quietly shaping emotion and social behavior.

        Alongside my digital work, I am beginning to experiment with three-dimensional processes that transform organic matter back into organic form. This investigation reflects my interest in cycles – construction and deconstruction, regulation and freedom, permanence and decay. By manipulating natural materials, I examine the tension between human intervention and inherent structure.

        I am increasingly drawn to interactive work. When a viewer physically engages with a piece, meaning becomes participatory rather than observational. Interaction introduces new possibilities for interpretation and disrupts passive consumption. I believe art is central to social change because its conceptual language can move across spoken language barriers. It creates a shared space for reflection. When viewers actively engage, whether by slowing down in front of a photograph or physically interacting with an installation, they become co-creators of meaning.

        Ultimately, my practice asks: How do the spaces we inhabit shape who we become and how we understand other spaces? And how might intentional engagement with those spaces alter our awareness of ourselves and one another?

This piece will be following the theme of my artist statement. Through layers of transparent images and textured paintings, this blog will explore the creation of a stagnant piece of work, a moving piece of work, and a mini booklet to hand out when this project is presented. Welcome to my capstone.