Artist's Statement
i have learned through my experiments in art, my face is somewhat of a blank canvas. these days when i apply make-up i no longer see my own image, but rather, tones, light and color. physical attractiveness can be exciting to look at, but i have always had more of a penchant for ugliness. i use a lot of scars, deformities and fat in my artistic expression; what i call the "beautiful ugly" of the world. if i were given a choice to photograph cindy crawford or christopher walken, i would choose christopher with quite a bit more enthusiasm than cindy. this is because i believe the human condition does not truly reside in the glamorous world of cocktails and boob-jobs as the media would have us believe. i feel that the best version of the world is much more real than that; more visceral and touchable. people you glance at on the subway are "the real world" for example. or the guy who owns the deli down the road. or shoppers from the grocery store. these are the people who make up 99% of our society, yet they go mostly unnoticed in a world saturated with the "beautiful ones." my job is to notice the unnoticed people and re-create them using my own face and body. it is my way of remembering my environment and teaching others to stop eating everything they are fed by TV and magazines. i want to show them how to devour life as it happens in front of them everyday.
k.p. colston