I am currently thinking about the relationships between texture, color, edges, and images. I love the meeting of glossy, shiny photographic images with hand drawn images. I am also interested in deep space that exists in a photograph and what happens when it's butted up against a hand drawn image that sits closer to the surface of the paper. My process is to put intuitive open marks on the page and then add some recognizable forms (drawers for example) that appear to be behind the marks, yet have more of a three-dimensional sensation. The last step is to screw up the visual logic further by taking a man-made image (photograph in a magazine) and framing the drawn image (drawers) making it appear to pop off the page and exist in a strange space somewhere between that of the watercolor/ink that sits on the surface and that of the photograph that creates deep, deep space. The most ironic part is that the drawers are just the white of the page; they are not in front of the magazine image yet appear that way. The photograph also becomes pattern because of the way I manipulate and change its shape. It flips between retaining a sense of depth due to the light, shape, and perspective of the image, and being a flat pattern. Essentially I am enjoying a visual and emotional phenomenon that occurs with the slight, yet precise manipulation and pairing of materials and images.
I can talk about all of these things formally, but I can't help but read into my obsession with visual trickery, removal of function, and the juxtaposition of disparate images/textures. I've always processed the world through allegory, metaphor, and narrative. It comes from an earnest belief in the poetry of things. I want to make sense of my chaotic relationship to the world. I've found that the greater the gap between an understatement and its true effect, the more moving the experience is for me. It's a little about irony and a little about how a simple gesture, statement, or act can be laden with so much complexity and meaning. I will find and post some of these examples from film and literature. For now, bedtime.
The top photo is the 24"x36" mixed media drawing I'm working on. The two below it are details. It comes out of the same process I used for the work in the previous post. I want these drawings to reside in between over-produced slickness and handmade painterliness. I also want it to be difficult to locate or establish what plane the images within the drawing sit on.
I am currently thinking about the relationships between texture, color, edges, and images. I love the meeting of glossy, shiny photographic images with hand drawn images. I am also interested in deep space that exists in a photograph and what happens when it's butted up against a hand drawn image that sits closer to the surface of the paper. My process is to put intuitive open marks on the page and then add some recognizable forms (drawers for example) that appear to be behind the marks, yet have more of a three-dimensional sensation. The last step is to screw up the visual logic further by taking a man-made image (photograph in a magazine) and framing the drawn image (drawers) making it appear to pop off the page and exist in a strange space somewhere between that of the watercolor/ink that sits on the surface and that of the photograph that creates deep, deep space. The most ironic part is that the drawers are just the white of the page; they are not in front of the magazine image yet appear that way. The photograph also becomes pattern because of the way I manipulate and change its shape. It flips between retaining a sense of depth due to the light, shape, and perspective of the image, and being a flat pattern. Essentially I am enjoying a visual and emotional phenomenon that occurs with the slight, yet precise manipulation and pairing of materials and images. 
This was the second large installation I made in graduate school. I marked a spot in the corner opposite the piece and from that perspective I arranged and painted the space so that the chair melted into the scene around it. The chair, corner shadow, white paper, and pastry sleeves made their way into the next 3 installations. Recycling is resourceful.
Here are a few in progress shots followed by 2 more detail shots of the finished piece. The photographs become works in themselves and turn into collages and drawings.
This is a detail from the first installation I made in graduate school on a grand scale. I locked myself in a cold room with windows that led into another interior (no natural light) and with some David Bowie, Jens Lekman, and Kanye West keeping the beat, I intuitively started marking and altering the cold, institutional space. I decided on a palette, scale, and materials, but the imagery was mostly accidental. I knew that I wanted to warp the space by using illusionistic tricks. I also withheld all judgment and just allowed myself to respond to the elements of the room. The stool was already there and it provided me an opportunity to play with illusion and animation. This was also the first time I used woodgrain contact paper as a collage element. In the end I was satisfied with the cinematic, confusing, and playful space. I felt I had successfully composed a 3-dimensional collage using a variety of artificial and organic materials. The relationship of high-gloss latex paint to weathered newsprint to the artificiality of the glossy woodgrain contact paper had a real impact on me. I realized that this use of materials was directly related to the way I experience contemporary consumer culture, especially in a city like Seattle where there is so much mixing of nostalgic eras, like modernism, with garage sale chic. The culture here seems to embrace the past as a way of confronting the chaotic present.