Pamela Viola
Dots and Stripes II by Pamela Viola
Artist Statement
My current photographic technique has evolved from my work with Polaroid and other types of transfer printing. Depending on the mood I want to create, I make color, saturation, focus and textural choices, sometimes adding additional story elements in order to create a heightened sense of drama or a dreamlike quality. At times I will paint a specific texture, scan, and then layer the digital version on an image. I often use luminous light from a mysterious source to direct focus; but most of all, I experiment with various scenarios of color and focal point as I develop the work. The embellished landscape is an ongoing theme in my body of work. While sometimes dark and moody in tonality, the overarching simplicity of my compositions implies a sense of peace and tranquility in the rural countryside.I feel my most successful pieces are those that are intentionally unpopulated offering a degree of mystery that rouses a viewer to imagine themselves in the scene creating their own narrative and wanderings.
Biography
Pamela (Hochschartner) Viola began making photography-based images in a high school art class at the age of fourteen with a plastic Diana camera. A few years later she was exhibiting traditional black and white silver gelatin prints of American Southwest architectural subjects in galleries throughout New York, New England and Colorado, winning multiple show awards and artist grants. During a 1979 Bennington College internship at the renowned Light Gallery in New York City, Pamela was exposed to the work of photography masters Strand, Adams, Cunningham, Steichen, Winogrand and witnessed the challenges modern photography faced from traditional curators and art historians. At that time, some traditionalists considered photography less than a fine art because of its reliance on a “recording device” and the possibility of unlimited editions. In many ways similar discussions have been revived with the advent of the digital age. In 1988 she turned her attention from still photography to motion pictures, and spent 15 years working as a freelance Production Coordinator and Production Manager on feature films such as Black Hawk Down, Hannibal, Natural Born Killers, Nell and Six Degrees of Separation.
Currently her photography and mixed media artwork is an interpretive layering of photographic images and textures that has developed as a result of her experimentation with various transfer printing techniques. Her moody and haunting compositions provoke the viewer to create their accompanying narratives. Pamela lives in Alexandria, Virginia and specializes in art for corporate, hospitality, health care and residential clients. Viola has a major solo exhibition scheduled for December 2009.
