Photograms 1983-1985

Much of my artwork has been an investigation of how our relationship to the world is mediated and directed through culturally determined visual languages such as photography, vernacular signage, diagrams and maps. Moving to East Los Angeles in the 1980s inspired my early photograms by utilizing the common symbols and shapes from the public signage I encountered in this multi-lingual urban environment.

Over the next eight years I produced a body of photogram-based work with dense composite imagery that reordered the logical reading of these vernacular signs and extended their intended function into the unexpected realms of dream, memory and personal association. With this work I wanted to trigger the potential for a visual language based on individual experience and create an opportunity for human imagination and curiosity to flourish