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Creative Statement – LOW PRESSURE

I am responding to how one accesses the contemporary western landscape – primarily through relationships formed traversing roads, interstates and highways. The source imagery for the work comes from the periodic snapshots taken from the network of cameras monitoring road and weather conditions available on the Wyoming Department of Transportation website. The pictures that the cameras take are ephemeral, lasting only a few minutes before replacement. I search through the randomness to find compositions that formally intrigue me and manipulate the images through the drawing process, creating objects that attempt to transcend the fleeting nature of their source.

For me, the images these cameras take during periods of especially harsh weather speak to a sense of political and economic unrest currently facing the nation. The title for the work, LOW PRESSURE, comes from the cameras and is ironic, as the weather creates extremely dangerous traveling conditions for motorists and uncertainty grows not only about the prospects of economic recovery, but also about the long-term sustainability of the prevalent economic modes of thinking.