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All You Can Eat

September 20, 2004

"All You Can Eat" is a phrase commonly used to bring crowds of people into a restaurant. It implies an abundance of foods placed in buffet fashion, where you pile your plate with everything that appeals to you. The portions can be as big as you like. You tend to take more food than you can comfortably eat.

Last year, I was one of 10 artists in Iowa chosen for The Storefront Project which was funded by the Des Moines Public Art Commission. This new work was conceived in a certain area of Des Moines named the East Village. I spent over a month there photographing the people, places and details of the area. My approach to this idea comes from listening to a lecture by Wim Wenders that I heard this winter. He believes that the place will tell you the story of itself -- if you listen. The trick, Wenders says, is “to decipher the story the places have to tell us”

My interest in photography lies in the people and the visual ambience of an environment. Details. Stories. Vignettes. History. After photographing the East Village I created 13 rather large collages using my images, text and mixed-media. The collages are akin to film.

One day I showed the collages to Jane Milosch, curator at CRMA. She immediately named the body of work...."All You Can Eat". The collages are visually loaded, filled to the brim. Hopefully, they will fill you up. Maybe you will come back for more.