Pamela Zappardino Why I do this……………..

Pamela Zappardino

Why I do this……………..

It has been surprisingly hard for me to write an artist’s statement. Perhaps that’s because I had not really thought of myself as an artist until fairly recently. I guess it took a lot of years to peel off those other layers and find out who I really am…and then come to believe it.

I can’t remember a time when my dad didn’t have a camera – maybe two. He loved to take pictures. I also can’t remember a time when I didn’t have a camera and I came to share his love of capturing things on film. In time, it became much more than that.

I see the world differently when I look through the viewfinder. It comes into focus; vision becomes crystalline. As I move across space, I see relationships form and fade. The intensity of experience is clear and tangible. My concentration deepens. I see through the surface layers to what’s really there.

This way of seeing is incredibly exciting to me. Without thinking about it, I started articulating these layers in my mixed media work. Photographs move in relation to each other, or find expression in multiple images. Pieces of stuff sometimes add to the mix. I like unusual juxtapositions. I’m the agent of all of this, but it I don’t think about it too hard, and just go where the work wants to take me. (My natural tendencies toward procrastination help with this process.)

While I have moved on from film to digital cameras, I still love the challenge of finding the right angle, composing the best photo, getting the light just the way I want it. I don’t alter any of my photos beyond the cropping that I could do with photos taken on film. I don’t even know how to use a Photoshop type program. That may come at some point, but for now, I haven’t finished exploring the world as I see it through that frame.

My work is eclectic . Some themes recur…concerns about war and peace, human rights, equity. But perspective intrigues me, as does a mix of colors, and the look on a person’s face. Things out of the ordinary and everyday things are here as well. My dad taught me early on to “fill the frame” and so my photos are often up close, so much so that they may only contains parts of things.

I hope I make people smile, and think, and perhaps do a double take or two. A few “aha’s” would be nice. But mostly I would like people to just enjoy.

Little does my father know that when he gave me that first camera, he set me on a path to becoming an artist. I just had to figure that out.

Thanks, Dad.

Kevin Dayhoff Art: http://www.kevindayhoff.com/ (http://kevindayhoffart.blogspot.com/) http://www.kevindayhoffart.com/ New Bedford Herald: http://kbetrue.livejournal.com/