PROCESS

SUTTON & PORTER STRACKE'S PORTRAIT BEING STITCHED BY ASSISTANT LIEVE MEEUSSEN BRUSSELS 2016
Some thoughts from the wonderful Demi Moore on our working process:
The starting point for our collaboration was finding the story that we each were going to tell through our individual participation. Our story had a reference image of a Klimt painting but that was more a grounding of our shared feelings of what we wanted these images to express, a launching off point from which to play. The photographs themselves were beautiful simple stripped down vulnerable and raw. Lovely on their own, but for Tim they were merely the first layer in an ever evolving exploration. The foundation we created was solid and never changed. The core feeling within each image stayed true to our initial intention but each different fabric told a different story and showed different aspects, almost like bringing forward what lies hidden underneath . I like to think of this as "not everything being what it seems"....because like in life there is always much much more to be discovered and you never know what you might find! The fun in this process is the discovery. And when an image and fabric align to tell the right story it is magic!
Once you schedule a portrait session, a location date and time will be agreed upon. I shoot outdoors in natural light - never in a photo studio. A naturally lit indoor space can also be an option. Whether you choose the single panel, or stitched option for the final piece, the shooting process remains the same. I'm happy to give input on best options for our shoot. I will do an initial photo edit, and then together we choose the final image with which I will create your portrait. In developing this body of work further, I experimented by printing the same photographic image on a multitude of different fabrics, cutting the fabrics apart and then hand stitching them back together again. Incorporating gold thread, a direct reference to the Japanese art of Kintsugi (in which broken pottery is repaired with gold to call extra attention to the beauty of the disruptions, while also reuniting the pieces). These works I refer to as my "stitched works. They allow for greater complexity, and richness of surface, and reference my earliest training as a painter. I considered myself mainly a painter when I moved to NYC in 1983 to study at Parsons, and feel this foundation is still very much present in my current work in that I am still creating "paintings” by applying pigment (photographically) to cloth (patterned fabrics) to create my images.
The main focus of my work is performance, the construction of identity, mythology, memory, musicality, design, art history, abstraction, figurative abstraction, craft, and the spaces created when these disciplines overlap.
MY FORMER STUDIO AT 6546 HOLLYWOOD BOULEVARD FEATURING COMPLETED PORTRAIT OF RUMER, SCOUT, & TALULAH WILLIS