I was honored to receive first place in photography at the recent Elk Grove Fine Art Center Annual Open Juried Competition. My image, “Dual Citizen” was an image that I took when in British Columbia last year. I printed it on Moab’s gorgeous art paper, and matted and framed it myself.
My artist’s statement is as follows:
Chris’ immediate family moved to L.A. from Edmonton, Alberta in 1980. Because the rest of her family remains in Canada, she has spent the past almost 40 years traipsing back and forth. The bifurcation of her national loyalties, her families, her sense of rootedness was perhaps no more pronounced after her mother died from complications related to Parkinson’s Disease. At her mother’s request, Chris embarked on a mission to divide up her mother’s earthly remains, as well as her father’s, between the U.S. and Canada. Sad and grieving, she welcomed the wet and cool weather of Stanley Park, the source of this image. Near the Rose Garden, the Harding Statue is the only one in B.C. to feature an American president. It caught her eye because of the two classically-draped female statues on either side, one representing the U.S. and the other Canada. Her story, it seemed. Not knowing which figure represented which country, she captured this face, which seemed to be grieving with her in the rain.
The image was taken with my Nikon D750 camera and Nikon Nikkor 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6g lens.