Selfspeare

This self-portraiture series is an ode to the significant changes in my life these past few years. It addresses my foray into fatherhood, the challenges brought on by the pandemic, and my evolving identity as an artist, husband, and man. Change has been difficult and I want to make art that uses elements of my experience with honesty, vulnerability, and theatricality. This is a photo poem of a metamorphosis in progress. It’s the death of an old way of being, the reassessment of priorities, and learning to take steps into a new chapter of life.

I like to take the messy and often contradictory feelings that are part of the human experience, deconstruct them, and create narrative work that is part of a dialogue about the beauty, absurdity, and heartbreak of it all. The work of Shakespeare has been so important to me over the years, and I often incorporate his text and themes to help express my own thoughts and feelings. I begin with an idea as a departure point and then improvise-trusting it will lead me to new and exciting places.

 I worked as a stage actor in New York for many years-particularly drawn to the classics. My wife then got a job offer in Los Angeles, and we moved here and began a family. These changes have brought so much value and richness to my life, but have also, at times, been difficult to reconcile. This work utilizes truth, tall tales, and a love of The Bard to address some of the bumps in the road-the joys and challenges of being a not-so-young new father, an evolving artistic identity, and the isolation, loss of income, community, purpose, and sense of self that the pandemic exacerbated. All leading to. Good things. Now. Ahead.