Artist Statement
These images can be tied thematically to ideas about unnatural man in natural environments, in varying states of ecstasy and enveloped in narratives about the struggle for meaning and placement. Yet they are still portraits of people in their own irresolvable states. I believe landscape shapes narrative, informs our minds, and proves the only thing that comes down is sunlight. All the rest come up: trees, water, us, weather--and they all speak against teleology, destiny, and static forms of authority and composition.
Process Statement
These images are made with a variety of portable scaffolds, lights, diffusers, and remote triggering devices in remote locations across the US, after the sun goes down. I have gotten Lyme's disease twice, been arrested, been covered in poison ivy, thrown up in the heat, been snakebit. Final compositions are created in post-production, printed on cotton paper, and sometimes further altered with ink, scrapers, encaustic, and finishing sprays.
Bear Kirkpatrick currently works and lives in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
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