ABOUT THE ARTIST: 

My life as an artist is very much about seeking ever expanding opportunities to travel and embrace new cultures while achieving broader platforms to communicate my vision. As a self directed visual artist my work combines traditional and digital photographic processes with computer technology in a manner that produces a truly distinctive artistic medium.

Central to the core of my art are issues related to migration as a transforming agent in cultural evolution. Over the course of my career I have focused on the enriching impact of the African presence throughout the Americas. Through my photographs I strive to interpret the ways cultural relationships were established along the path of the slave trade and create pictorials that bear witness to Africa’s legacy of elevating influences and retentions in daily life and custom in those places. I believe my work to be essential in that it records and celebrates the merging of African traditions with other World cultures in the Americas. While my initial photographs document elements of cultural integration in the United States and locales like Cuba, Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad and South Africa; employment of the new media allows me to give the photographic image broader creative expression.

 A noteworthy characteristic of my work lies in my choice of substrate. My current body of work is digitally printed directly to hand etched or brushed aluminum panels.

BIOGRAPHY:

Born in Indianapolis, Indiana, October 24,1949

SPECIAL PROJECTS:

June 2010  I was invited to participate in the StoryCorp project. In partnership with the Library of Congress their mission is to provide Americans of all backgrounds the opportunity to share and preserve the stories of our lives

2008 – Present   My City, My World is an inter-cultural, multimedia project facilitated through the Indianapolis Museum of Art's Perspectives after-school program. Participants in Indianapolis and Cape Town S.A. share  various aspects of their cultures  through photography and the Internet.

June 2007  I received my second Creative Renewal Fellowship Award from the Indianapolis Arts Council and the Lilly Foundation. This fellowship provided my first of several visits to Cape Town, South Africa to document this extremely complex society.

February 2007  The opening of African Roots in Cuban Soil. This exhibition reflects my ten year study of the impact of the enriching blend of African heritage that is so vital to Cuba’s vibrant culture.

June 2006   I lead a delegation of arts professionals on a field study of the processes and materials of contemporary works on paper in Havana, Cuba. Seeking to gain a foundation of understanding of these works, participants visited art institutes, workshops for print and paper making, artist studios as well as galleries and museums around Havana.

March 2006  - I guided a group of artists and museum professionals to Havana, Cuba for the 9^th Bienal de La Habana. Since it began in 1984, the Havana Bienal has become an increasingly significant event for contemporary artists who come from or have their cultural roots in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean. For this event over 100 artists came to Cuba from 40 countries to exhibit their expressions reflecting the dynamics of urban culture.

May 2005  - I facilitated a partnership between civic leaders from Memphis, TN with their counterparts in Indianapolis, IN toward the development of a new impetus for the Memphis visual arts community. Drawing from successful initiatives currently in place in Indianapolis, a committee was formed in Memphis to adapt the Indianapolis model as a new direction for this culturally rich city.

2003  - I served as Artist in Residence at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. In conjunction with The Natures Conservancy’s presentation of In Response to Place, I was assigned to produce a body of landscape photographs to accompany the works of twelve internationally renowned photographers including Terry Evans, Annie Liebowitz, Fazal Sheikh and Mary Ellen Mark. Additionally I developed an information data base related to the photographers and their works in the exhibit, as well as, conducted gallery talks and provided photography workshops for museum interns.

 2001  - I was Artist in Residence at the Eiteljorg Museum of Indian and Western Art during exhibition of the works of  legendary photographer Ansel Adams. During my residency I held gallery talks, conducted special tours of the exhibit and had regular open studio sessions where museum visitors could observe my work processes.

2000  - I held a one-year residency at the Madame Walker Theatre Center in Indianapolis. As Visual Artist-in-Residence I photographed productions in the theater and created fine art prints from the images.

January 2000  - As a recipient of the Creative Renewal Fellowship Award from the Indianapolis Arts Council and the Lilly Foundation I conducted a field study throughout north central Cuba to identify variations on the interaction between two of the three basic drums in the musical genre of Rumba. In the Rumba drum ensemble the highest pitched drum (the quinto) directs the movement of the dancers while the middle drum (the conga) and the lowest tuned drum (the tumbadora) are engaged in an ongoing call and response. Previous research in the genre had revealed subtle differences in this conversation and this inquiry provided valuable insight into its evolution. 

August 1999  - I studied the drum patterns and history of the musical genre of Bomba in Santurce, Puerto Rico. Bomba, along with Plena are two examples of African cultural retention particular to Puerto Rico. There are many styles of bomba, with the three most common rhythms being the "sica", "yuba" and "holandes".

June 1998    - I produced the first computer graphics seminar at the San Alejandro Academy of Fine Arts in Havana, Cuba. This conference, which made national news in Cuba, provided many of the participants their first opportunity to experience the computer as a medium for producing art and served as the prototype for the current computer graphics program at the academy.

December 1996  - I launched a research project on Afro-Cuban rhythms and Folklore at the University of Matanzas in Matanzas, Cuba. Under the direction of legendary percussionists Enrique “Papi” Mesa from Grupo Afro Cuba de Matanzas  and Augustin Diaz from Los Munequitos de Matanzas I studied the foundations of the musical genre of rumba.