Since 1996 I have been developing my current work, Ancient Statuary Series. This work is based on creating digital composites of my photographs of elderly figure models and photographs I make of ancient statuary in situ. During an extended visit to Rome in 1995 I discovered the historical precedents for compositing body parts with different statuary bodies. The following descriptive text from the Villa Borghese explains a large, overscaled male head on a female body, "Colossal head of Apollo placed in modern times on a female bust; 2C copy of a type of Apollo Citerado from 4C B.C."

I returned from Rome inspired to create photographic works referencing the 19th century travel/tourist/art photograph in platinum and albumen prints. Nineteenth century photographers, such as Francis Frith, returned to England with visual evidence of the ancient world. Those images and others reinforced a world view that still permeates our understanding of the origins of Western culture. Grafting older bodies onto ancient statuary forms and printing them as small, 3 x 5" up to 5 x 7", platinum prints, has given me the means to critically engage this imagistic heritage. The platinum prints, through their scale and materials, lend an intimacy and timelessness to the interpretation.

When conceiving Ancient Statuary Series I was intent on subverting the association of the aged body with decay and the grotesque. My aesthetic strategy was predicated on an embrace of the amputated body as an historically validated form that has been honored throughout Western Art History. Re-presenting the statuary fragment/torso blended with an aging mortal being, my work questions the terms that define culture and knowledge. Creating these works digitally in materials and scale that reference photographs from the19th century, I expect to both locate these works in dialogue with historical precedents and their patriarchal heritage.