Here is a recent version of my artist's statement. It is to be part of my Translucent Bone series.
I keep thinking of how rusty I am. Like layers of flaking material grinding against itself, trying to
get enough excess off that it can move freely. Like trying to run two blocks after sitting on your ass for five years. Hopefully exercising my creativity long enough, and it will become effortless. I am guessing about 25 years or so.

Translucent Bones

Photographs by Michelle Levante
2006


Bones are the last physical evidence that survives death, the remaining clue of any animal’s existence. It is the survivor, years after decomposition of flesh, skin, organs, and hair; the bone will endure for a while longer. So too will the metal infrastructure of our buildings, bridges, homes, fences and roadways. Like bone to the rest of our bodies, metal holds up our cities to enable the functioning of our modern physical civilization. And like bone, it survives the decay of the architecture it once supported. There is a similarity between the two objects. Each weathered, rough, and harsh, yet retaining some semblance to it’s original function. Placed together bone and rusted metal seemed almost logically linked.
The beauty of the light penetrating through the bones I observed one day after acquiring several skulls and placing them near a window. It seemed sensual; the glow of light passing through what so strongly symbolizes death.
I am fascinated by the juxtaposition of seemly incongruent elements. almost a perverse play of what should not be, forced together and then I will try to find the similarities. This is a reversal of true science, which says a hypothesis must be formulated based on some observation. Then the theory postulated and the experiment conducted to prove that what is guess is now objective truth. I too start with observation, but the experiment is only to try to find a subjective, emotional truth. Then perhaps I can try to postulate a theory that can only gratify myself.

I am drawn to the aesthetic of scientific and medical photography. It is cold, sparse and meant to convey the subject accurately without opinion, free from the burden of a more romantic stylized image making. But it creates its own set of emotions that can be manipulated to speak about a perversity in the subject matter. Is science objective? Is nature something that human’s control, or should control? Are our bodies merely a physical, biological phenomena, or can emotions and passions control our bodies also? These are some of the subjects I would like to explore.