Ithaca Guitar Works, located in Ithaca, NY has been family run for over 30 years. The shop is owned by Chris Broadwell who runs the store with his two sons Rylan and Ash. They sell and repair string instruments.
The shop has a reputation for being the go-to place in Ithaca for serious guitar lovers. Situated on the first floor and second floors of Dewitt Mall, the store is divided into an area for selling merchandise on the lower floor and a workshop on the upper floor. In the privacy of the second floor workshop, Paul Vidovich, the luthier, works behind-the-scenes, disassembling and repairing broken and warped guitars. He takes great care with his work, becoming completely absorbed in the task at hand, whether he is restoring a custom-made guitar or making a minor adjustment.
All of the people who work in the store are musicians. Chris Broadwell plays cello and guitar, was in the Peabody Band, and even performed at the Grand Ole Opry. His sons also play guitar and Paul, the luthier, plays bass in the alt-rock band Vee Da Bee. Grammy award-winning guitarist and songwriter Arthel Lane “Doc” Watson was a customer at the shop as was Hollywood actor Keanu Reeves.
I am preoccupied with reflections in nature and how they alter perception. I came upon these reflections in the natural landscape on one of my many walks around Ithaca.
A history exists of photographing people’s facial expressions to illustrate medical conditions or states of mind. During the 19th century, the famous neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot documented so-called hysteria through images of women in different states of the alleged condition. Today, books on psychology show people’s various emotions and facial expressions to illustrate the ways people communicate how they feel. A facial expression typically makes one’s feelings known, but how much of that is real? How much is just an illusion--an impression or idea that is incorrectly perceived or interpreted? What do appearances tell us about the way people feel? What is the difference between the way we are perceived by others and the way we see ourselves? The subjects of these works are close friends and family members whom I think I know well, but their facial expressions and the emotions they convey may or may not represent how these individuals truly feel, or how they actually see themselves.
Traditionally the sublime has been prompted by a contemplation of nature. More recent image makers find it in the realm of human endeavor—consumer culture, economic forces, the Internet, and surveillance regimes. I find the sublime in the complexity, power, and fragility of insects.
This project focuses on creating and challenging the expectations of how objects appear depending on their context. In the larger image of each diptych, I present an abstraction, and with the secondary image, I provide a context for that abstraction that changes the viewer’s perception of the first image. The viewer can then explore the connection between the two images and their points of reference. My work contrasts an image that is a deconstruction of shapes and colors with a photo that provides information on what the object typically looks like. One classifies the object in a recognizable way, and the other foregrounds its abstract, intangible qualities. I am interested in the tension between the absence and the presence of the object in both photos. I am also interested in exploring what it means to take something we think we know and transform it into something new. Abstraction gives the viewer a unique experience that can take them in a myriad of directions and interpretations that can even surpass the artist's expectations. I believe that this multitude of interpretations is powerful and that abstraction can elicit them from both mundane and unique objects.
New York City architecture is marked by socio-economic realities. One can encounter a 5-block radius that contains expensive high-end residential buildings, skyscrapers filled with corporate offices, and dilapidated public housing. If one is familiar with the city, those distinctions are evident by the way the buildings look at first glance. Typically, New Yorkers will pass these buildings and instantly identify, classify, admire, or dismiss them. I am using abstraction to deconstruct the subject and create a new physical reality.
