Some insight

Self portrait (2006)

Self Portrait (2001)

So here is an insight into my mind and my photographic work. My images are my voice, to explore my place in the world, as a disabled woman, and artist, and so in that sense they are rooted to a profoundly personal place within me. At the same time, although these images could be construed as mere self portraits, they are in fact speaking of the wider concerns of disability, desirability, body image and difference. I begun this work years ago, using myself as the model because it was convenient, but quickly realised that in telling my story, or hinting at it, I was reflecting back and perhaps challenging society's perception of the 'ideal'. I have continued making images with this always in mind. This fall I will be collating much of my imagery together to form a complete body of work, and it is my hope to share some of this with you in the weeks and months ahead, with few unrelated photographic and creative wanderings thrown in for good measure.

A poem for today........... by Kenneth Patchen

The Artist's Duty

So it is the duty of the artist to discourage all traces of shame

To extend all boundaries

To fog them in right over the plate

To kill only what is ridiculous

To establish problem

To ignore solutions

To listen to no one

To omit nothing

To contradict everything

To generate the free brain

To bear no cross

To take part in no crucifixion

To tinkle a warning when mankind strays

To explode upon all parties

To wound deeper than the soldier

To heal this poor obstinate monkey once and for all

To verify the irrational

To exaggerate all things

To inhibit everyone

To lubricate everyone

To lubricate each proportion

To experience only experience

To set a flame in the high air

To exclaim at the common place alone

To cause the unseen eyes to open

To admire only the absurd

To be concerned with every profession save his own

To raise a fortuitous stink on the boulevards of truth and beauty

To desire an electrifiable intercourse with a female alligator

To lift the flesh above the suffering

To forgive the beautiful its disconsolate deceit

To flash his vengeful badge at every abyss

To HAPPEN

It is the artist's duty to be alive

To drag people into glittering occupations

To blush perpetually in gaping innocence

To drift happily through the ruin race-intelligence

To burrow beneath the subconscious

To defend the unreal at the cost of reason

To obey each outrageous impulse

To commit his company to all enchantments