I remember spending a lot of my time playing in the backyard when I was a kid. I'd often find something fascinating in the mundanity of the everyday objects that surrounded me: rusty bicycle parts, old bottles and cans, dog poop. Odd, kinetic sculptures and images scrawled in the mud hinted at creative inclinations.

These days, I'm still happiest when being creative— I just have more sophisticated means of articulating it than bottles, cans and dog poop (most of the time). My tool of choice has been the 4x5 large format camera. Sometimes I'd use several of these cameras at once, capturing the tableaus set before them on one sheet of film: a photomontage.

With little practical training and a lot of uninhibited experimentation, I uncovered ways of achieving effects comparable to mixed media collage or surreal painting. I'd play with both black-and-white and color film, sometimes a combination of these. I'd use darkroom tricks and digital manipulation, and again, sometimes a combination of both. Where once the computer was one of several integral steps before reaching the final image, it has now assumed a more dominant role.

Many times, I have no initial strategy for executing an idea until I actually start setting up lights and objects. But for those who hate surprises, rest assured that projects usually begin with a sketch or two and a creative dialogue.