Film Stills

ongoing series: acrylic on paper, acrylic on panel and video, 2008

“Cinema is not the reflection of reality, but the reality of the reflection." 
—Jean-Luc Godard 

Film Stills is an ongoing series of paintings and videos that explore what it means to focus on one moment, one frame of an infinitely longer and more complex film. How does this recontextualization play with the absence of movement, cinematic history and representation made minimal and graphic?  

Persona, Alphaville, acrylic on paper
These acrylic paintings on paper feature film stills in which mirrors are significant. Figures are painted out leaving white silhouettes and mirrors are painted silver.  Films include Begman's Persona, Resnais' Last Year at Marienbad and Godard's Alphaville. This ongoing series can also be called Beauty Through the Looking Glass which references critic and painter Jeremy Gilbert-Rolfe’s piece “Indebted to Penny Florence”, 1987.  

Contempt, digital video, color, sound, 103 minutes (excerpt)
This piece appropriates Jean-Luc Godard's film by the same name and adds digital effects until the imagery is nearly unrecognizable. While exploring the edge between figuration and non-representation, the piece leaves the original soundtrack intact.

Last Year at Marienbad, acrylic on rag paper
These acrylic paintings on paper feature film stills in which mirrors are significant. Figures are painted out leaving white silhouettes and mirrors are painted silver.  Films include Begman's Persona, Resnais' Last Year at Marienbad and Godard's Alphaville. This ongoing series can also be called Beauty Through the Looking Glass which references critic and painter Jeremy Gilbert-Rolfe’s piece “Indebted to Penny Florence”, 1987.  

India Song, Jules and Jim, and Last Year at Marienbad, acrylic on panel
Acrylic paintings on wood panel attempt to represent an entire film with one frame derived from that film. Treated graphically and using color metaphorically, these works are paired down, graphic depictions.