MOST OF MY photographs are taken with a POLAROID SX70 Land Camera. This is an older SLR instant film camera which has been discontinued but the film is still available today from Polaroid.

The film used in this camera takes up to 30 minutes to completly harden. In that time, however, the emulsion can be manipulated by adding pressure to the front of the Polaroid with small blunt tools.

By hand altering the image I am able to create texture and highlights directly on the photograph itself.

The real beauty of a manipulated image is realized when the small Polaroid picture is enlarged. By enlarging the Polaroid , all the tiny maniputated lines and color changes become more apparent and often give the final image the look of a watercolor, oilpainting or pastel.

I enlarge the Polaroid image digitally, and print my work using the highest quality archival inks and paper.

On a personal level, I have a BFA in art education and taught art for twelve years in the Memphis Public School system I have been a full time artist for the past 10 years living in Florida and working exclusively with the Polaroid process. I show and sell my work at juried fine art festivals across the country and have won numerous awards in my medium.

I draw my subjects from the simple things around me that we so often take for granted. I have a love of color, shape and form and when these elements all come together to produce an arrangement of natural beauty then I feel compelled to capture it on film. In the time after the image appears on the film and the 30 minutes I have to work with the emulsion , I feel that somehow I have connected with that object, that landscape, that pear or apple ...on a deeper level and I grow from it. In short , I would say that my art is simply my spontaneous respose to the enviroment around me in which all things are connected and nothing is insignificant.