A few videos about the work, install and opening of the exhibition…

“I decontextualize. Then, I reconstruct.”

This latest collection titled “Fragments” – Island Style is a new body of work paying tribute to the Caribbean where I was born and raised and South Florida where I now live. All of the images are photographed, processed and manipulated using an iPhone. Printed on aluminum and Metallic papers that are modern and Contemporary and then float mounted on recycled tropical woods and textures, that create a Contemporary – tropical vibe.

One of the styles I use, I have nicknamed” Shards” – it’s new technique of deconstructing and rebuilding the images layering several different processes to create line, shape, pattern and vivid colours. I manipulate the original captures by stripping the image down, converting them into line drawings and then reconstructing them, adding vivid fragments of colors, and shapes.  By deconstructing the original image I can focus, not only, on the outer edges but on the gaps in between. The manipulation allows me to focus on what is not there as much as what is. Paying attention to the negative space allows me to see new alternate patterns occurring between the lines where I can add “shards’ and colour to create a different visual. For me, it is the chaos of the colorful fragments and cracks that allow for a brand new perspective and an entirely new way to explore the familiar subject of the images. The second style presented in this body of work is much softer, more fluid and painterly – but the color in both styles is vivid, and captures the vibrancy of Caribbean.

I like to think that many of the images I create with my iPhone – live at the edges of perception and invite you to focus on the lines and shapes of the subject and the patterns they create, more than the other usual details of an image. Because I was born in Trinidad I’m always inspired by things that are tropical and have an Island vibe, so the subject matter I chose to focus on in this body of work will naturally reflect a Caribbean style – but I invite the viewer to look at them with new eyes, and to explore the details and colors in a different way.

Technology can be a dirty word in art: the misplaced suggestion is that it offers the artist a shortcut. It implies that even more maligned concept still: uniformity and a lack of uniqueness. But I would argue that the cameras and software are just tools like the brushes and paint. It is how we use or manipulate them that creates the style and expression of the images.

I know all the proper rules in Photography, my husband and I have made a living as Commercial Photographers where our photography has to be exact and precise and fit all the parameters of the assignment. It is for that very reason, that I like to divert from the expected “rules” with my personal Photography. In my personal work, the only rule is “there are no rules.“ I always focus on the less obvious and try to transform it into something worthy of attention, but the original elements are always right there below the surface.

In all of my work, my recycled paper dresses, my art jewelry made from repurposed materials and my fine art photography – there is always a recurring theme: “Transformation and Possibilities“ – To see the beauty and potential of all things and the possibilities that a different point of view can create.” There is beauty to be found in realness, in imperfections, in things that are tossed aside, ignored and mistaken as unimportant or things seen every day and taken for granted. I like to transform things – to make them “special” in a totally different way – a less obvious point of view – always trying to move beyond the expected and predictable. There is beauty to be found in the imperfections: the broken lines, shards of color, incomplete spaces, remnants of textures, blurred patterns, smudges, and distorted pixels – its all part of the many layers that I use to build and reconstruct the image. The challenge is to see beyond the obvious and to consider an alternate perception.

My goal is to inspire those who see my work to look more carefully at the world around them, to discover beauty in unusual places.”