“My work has evolved from a lifelong love for, fascination with, and sense of reverence for the human form. I have also been deeply committed over the years to the process of drawing, finding in it time and again an emotional and visceral immediacy that has served my deeper purposes. I am working now exclusively with live models and with a great deal of speed. I like working with a living, breathing human being because, by definition, the subject is not a static one but a dynamic one, moment by moment in a process of change. My aim is to transmit something of the power of that dynamism to the viewer. When successful, I liken the experience to going on a somewhat frightening roller coaster ride and arriving breathless and sometimes amazed at where that ride has taken me. The process requires of me a very deep letting off of the brakes of any preconceived notions I may have had for the drawing. By responding freshly to a particular moment the work can move in many different directions, sometimes more abstractly, sometimes more representationally. My best work often includes elements of both, and can be further layered with a sense of transition, emotional nuance and some measure of mystery.”

As an artist, I attempt to put on paper, those things that interest me. I choose from within my space-a path from a morning's walk, a vegetable or a fruit from the market, flowers, weeds, trees, animals, a rock or a flowing creek. I transcribe these forms with pencil or charcoal, or a needle on copper or zinc in etched or drypoint line.

I mostly make photography the 'old fashion way' capturing the images on film and printing them in a darkroom. I found that by using a film camera I can more fully engaged with the subject of my pictures, the mood of the scene, the feelings I resent. I take my time driven by the intent to capture an emotional dimension if at all possible. I found freedom in this process becoming more part of the image than being an observer.

Rather than looking for achieving perfection thus, I choose to embrace the imperfections of our world - an exercise in accepting what is. A week later, a month later, when ever I get to develop the films, the angst I know fed by the thought that all might be fogged due to the airport x-ray machines is always eclipsed by the anticipated excitation of what I will (re)discover.

I often start with a figurative painting or a portrait. Then I adapt to the particular situation by subverting the picture plane in a variety of ways. Usually I either contract or expand the depicted space using one or more floating, intruding, or incongruous objects or subjects. My aim is to develop the classic genre of figurative work or portraiture into something more psychologically expressive and amusing. I chiefly work in pastel, oil pastel, or watercolor.

I start with photographs and do pure photography or apply artistic modifications using computer software. Some images are born in my imagination and are created in the computer. However I do it, the final image is printed using pigment ink on canvas or perhaps lustre paper or matte paper. The paper images are framed and the canvas images are put on stretcher bars for hanging in domestic and corporate environments. Some images get further treatment using oil pastels, markers, colored pencils, or other media. i love to experiment and see what happens and often get wonderful surprises!

Through the lens, everyday life is captured and heightened to convey a myriad of moods and impressions. Using varying combination of light, form, motion, and grain, these fleeting moments are edited to offer a view of the mundane, the romantic, the brooding, and the surreal.

These images are captured primarily on film, then printed through traditional process on sepia-or selenium-toned black and white silver gelatin paper, or through converting to digital files and printed with archival pigment ink.

A 2009 review by Michael Yokum for Open Studios can be accessed in the archives of SF Art News http://sfartnews.wordpress.com/2009/10/16/burnt-kettle-the-art-of-rebecc...