More Coming Into Focus

• Prize
  Gold in Fine Art/Special Effects, 2nd Place winner in Fine Art
• Photographer
  Ellen Jantzen

In this series I am exploring the realm of one’s environmental surroundings, how it is absorbed into one’s psyche and how this changes through relocations. In these days of refuges relocating from their homelands to distant places, my move from the Midwest to the West may seem trivial, but there are still feelings of dislocation and assimilation that take place. I approach this new work as both a window through which I observe my new surrounds (recording what I see) and a mirror where I bring my sensibilities to bear, reflecting my inner state of being. I use layering and blending modes to merge the observed environment with my internal intuition. I’m striving to visually capture the essence of my new environment while at the same time learning to understand. Add to that a landscape (the American West) that is fraught with cliché, and I find myself aspiring to bring my new home into focus, to make it my own.