Artist's Books:

Uncertain Relations, partly created in collaboration with poet Joel Chace, is a series that explores the connections between poem and reader, art and viewer, poem and sculptural form.

Poems that involve me the most are ones that reveal themselves to the reader in a measured way. That is also what attracts me to book arts as an art form. Like a well-told story it can make the viewer curious about what's next as well as engage them through touch. When a particular poem on a page in a printed book makes you stop, draw in a breath, and not want to turn the next page it deserves to stand alone. The artist book form allows for that and adds a physical and tactile dimension to the poem's voice.

An important personal aspect of this series is (finally) a very comfortable connection for me between my interest in art and technology (specifically digital imaging) and my aesthetic preference to work with certain physical materials and processes.

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Documentaries:

How do you approach narrative?

‘Don’t search, and don’t turn away’. I look for subjects that interest and involve me. Hopefully I can pass that on. It’s meeting someone very interesting and wanting all of your friends to meet them too.

What would you say are the overarching themes in your films?

They are all, in the end, human interest stories about people being true to their convictions.

Are there carryovers between your film and other artwork?

Yes, but in the reverse. I have a 30-year career as a visual artist working in low and high tech mediums such as artists’ books digital arts. My artists’ books tell stories in measured and sequential ways; using ‘a creative treatment of actuality.’ So do my documentaries.

My students’ insatiable interest in learning the newest technologies led me to a summer workshop in digital video. It became an added direction for my work two years ago.

My first short documentary, Flag Day, was very rewarding to do. It came at a time when artists were searching for a way to respond to 9/11 and major policy reactions such as the Iraq War. It was also well received and that gave me the confidence to make another.

Because I teach full-time I have the luxury of working on my own work without deadlines. My second short documentary, Bowl Digger, took the better part of a year to film and edit. For the structure, I relied on my visual arts background and told the story in still frames first. The amount and placement of video footage was largely controlled by what worked with the stills.

Cornie (41:37)

My introduction to the subject of this film one year ago was accidental and quickly overshadowed all that I was currently working on.

I was doing a favor for a colleague of mine who teaches local history at the high school level. She asked me to film a visit to her class by a 91-year old African American male who grew up in the community. It became clear from the beginning that his stories, which were told with amazing grace, humor, timing, and detail, needed to be heard by more than just the 12 people in that classroom. I spent the following year getting to know Cornie, researching photographs in the town and school archives, and looking for a way to weave a contemporary point of view into his stories.

Just like the Cornie taping, Lyndsey’s part was filmed in one session. I simply asked her to watch the same stories that she heard a year ago in class and stop the video whenever she had a response. My plan was to use her spontaneous comments to compliment Cornie’s stories and to serve as a device to move the film forward. I also wanted to enhance his stories with authentic (Mercersburg) historic photographs. The over-arching purpose was to give the film structure, contrast, and visual interest while at the same time, stay out of the way of his stories.

In editing the 90-minute session down to 40 minutes the theme became one of opportunity denied and bestowed; often the opportunity was educational in nature.

Like most educational institutions that are adjacent to a small town, there is often a disconnect between Mercersburg the school and Mercersburg the town. I have been sensitive to that fact for the 17 years that I’ve taught visual and digital arts at the academy.

I am proud of the small way this documentary has impacted reduced that gap. Within two weeks of the first preview screening a proposal was made by the Head of School to the Board of Regents of Mercersburg Academy to award Cornie an honorary diploma from the class of 2007. It was approved unanimously. This was a completely unexpected event and a well-deserved surprise for Cornie. It served as a way for the academy to acknowledge the wrongs of the past and set an example for the current school population.

Cornie proudly received his diploma. As a result of the two well-attended town and school screenings and the valuable Q&A sessions that followed, he is enjoying celebrity status around town.

I am convinced that he was sitting on his front porch patiently waiting for someone to tap him on the shoulder and ask, ‘got any stories?’ It was my privilege to do that and present his inspiring stories to a wider audience.