NEW WORK: Collaboration with Esther Baker-Tarpaga

Thank you Esther for inviting me to collaborate with you to create new work. The experience of making new photographic portraits to be in direct conversation with Grant Wood's infamous portraits was challenging and rewarding. Proving to me over and over how different it is to use a camera verses a paint brush. The work also speaks to my Midwestern roots and to the challenge of being a regional artist.

Grant Wood Tableaux Vivants is a new work that combines visual art with performance. Esther Baker-Tarpaga is a Fellow at the Grant Wood Art Colony at the University of Iowa. Her vision for this piece was to frame a queer, racially diverse utopia. The work was performed in the Art Building West at the University of Iowa on April 25, 2014. It was part of the 2014 Grant Wood Symposium.