Collecting and uncovering fragmented and hidden information is essential to all of my work. 

Formerly an abstract painter and colorist, I explored layering paint to reveal histories embedded in the act of painting. Changes to the layers, which I call “episodes,” captured my recollections of a time or location. Alterations to these painted episodes created the appearance of growth and transformation. Taken together, episodes manifested into new information- new stories. 

My current work with layered sound functions in much the same way.  Mixing field recordings with community voices that capture diverse lived experiences or knowledge, I create site-specific and digital installations that explore notions of how knowledge and identity are inextricably connected to space and location.  My work combines public histories and personal stories with field recordings to uncover and illuminate the complexities of the world around us that are oftentimes concealed from public view.  My efforts serve to investigate the community, create new relationships between lived experiences, and ultimately show the beauty that exists within diverse, shared spaces– natural and urban.  

It is essential that I collect the episodes in these audio pieces from the world outside my own experience, and are defined instead by people I meet or natural environments I move through.  Heard in the background are numerous, complexly layered field-recordings taken from each site or location.  Even with these works of art, the audio layers are added, removed, abstracted, pushed and pulled, all in an effort to reveal isolated moments of clarity within a seeming cacophony.  It is my hope that the episode—the individual moment of hearing parts within a whole—pushes the audience to a deeper moment of listening, or even understanding.  

In 2011, I developed Right Here Once, an online audio mapping system accessible through GPS technology-- that investigates urban spaces and community identity.  Through online resources, this digital inquiry into public spaces, history, and shared knowledge is accessible to listeners who are navigating urban sidewalks, historic paths, and nature trails. 

The goal of Right Here Once is to collect, connect, and present archives, historical documents, images, websites, and articles, as well as audio files developed from close examinations of spaces, community experience, and research. The Right Here Once walks and archives are a public resource, always available for free through web-based mobile technology.

2013