JEFF GRACZ

Artist Statement:

When I was a teenager, my Mom inherited a small amount of money and told me to “go out and buy something fun”. So I bought a camera and a few rolls of film. I went out to the rural countryside and immediately started arranging all the shapes, forms, lines, and colors, within the rectangular shaped viewfinder.

When I got those negatives back from the processor and held them up to the light, there was an immediate connection - I knew that this was something that I had to do. So I kept at it. The more I images I shot, the more mistakes I made, the more I wanted to do it. The insistent drive never stopped.

So here it is, decades later, and the insistence continues. I am still journeying through the chaos of the natural world, in hopes of restoring order within the confines of that rectangle. The goal is to create that elusive perfect image, while spending some quality time with the greater powers that be.

-Jeff Gracz