SALLY : The body of work morphed from realism into total abstraction . It started as a literal description of the laundry itself with an interest in exploring the humanity on view , the bits of buildings , and the sense of “ who wore those jeans ”? “ Did the guy live in that building ”? “ Whose nightgown is that ”? “ Who is the party girl ” etc . But then I started moving into abstraction and began referencing , as you said , sea creatures , flowers , botanicals . One viewer said about one of the photos that has a number of different woolen objects ( scarves , hats ) hanging on a line , “ It looks like the animals in the zoo are fighting with each other .”
STEVE : Most of your work is black and white , so to see this color was like looking at a different artist .
SALLY : I shot in black and white at the beginning , and I realized it wasn ’ t working . I love black and white photography more than anything , but this body of work is about brilliant color ; eye candy . The work is all about bright sun , luminosity , and saturated color .
STEVE : The way you use black and white in your earlier work is as an intentional tool to bring it towards abstraction , to take it away from the reality factor . And now you ’ ve achieved the same effect in color .
SALLY : Thanks for saying that , I don ’ t know if I ever thought about it like that but yes , you ’ re right . When I shot in black and white , they looked too realistic even , which is ironic as black and white is inherently abstract .
STEVE : The color pushes it towards the abstraction you were trying to achieve with black and white ! When I saw the show , I immediately thought of your book , The Water ’ s Edge , because this work easily slides between edges . The edges of painterly abstraction , a score of musical notes , the viewer ’ s emotional projection onto a Rorschach blot because we all name it the thing that we think it is based on our experience , the representation of the deep sea and the space of billowing clouds . In your mind , are any of these descriptions more accurate than another ?
SALLY : You ’ re my perfect viewer ! I was thinking particularly of the sea . I ’ m looking up rather than down , and I thought of the vast expansive of blue as a sky or as the sea . I thought of the imagery as sea life in the deep blue sea or celestial objects in the heavens .
STEVE : In your earlier work , you ’ re always traveling , going to unexplored territory ending up in a place that you knew was unexpected or unexplored . Is that relevant to this work ?
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