What a story! Isn't northwest Connecticut supposed to be quiet? Has the home invasion changed your security routine?
Officially, the northeast area is considered the Quiet Corner, but I’d like to believe the Northwest areas come a close second, compared to the chaotic, nearer to New York City, southern sections. And yes, I’ve now been locking my exterior doors religiously and always keep an exterior light glowing at night.
Peter Riggs Brown
When did you realize that art-making was going to be your way of processing the trauma?
I guess you could say that, after all those Covid years, stuck in semi-isolation for the most part, I began my continuation with art and somehow started slowly thinking, then doing and making works about the event.
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Your work incorporates teddy bears, household objects, revolvers and ammo — things that are simultaneously familiar and unsettling. How did you arrive at those specific objects, and what the symbols mean to you?
It’s funny, I’ve usually photographed scenes, objects, abstractions without the human presence, but I wanted to use the human form for this adventure. Whenever I see images posted in the photo journals, magazines, galleries, etc. (I’m going to get blowback for this), all the imagery looks the same to me, same this, same that — I felt the dolls, teddy bears added an edgy twist for me joining the people picture club. All the other objects chosen by me for inclusion are metaphors for various elements from that crime, stolen objects, etc.
I would surely have PTSD after an experience like yours! How accurately does that label describe your own experience? How has your perception changed the past ten plus years?
The anxiety, apprehension and memories from that night are slowly fading, but occasionally, and sometimes vividly, reappear.
Back to the beginning. How did your art life begin. The origin story — background, first years, school days?
I did attend the Hartford Art School, and at that time it was very progressive, a non-traditional, radical experimental place that just dumbfounded my naive senses. But after months of soaking it all in, I began to see how this radical environment was drawing me in — I loved the experiences there. I enjoyed both sculpture and photography, then after graduating, I started working as a residential framer for a small construction company, but always thought of a photography career. Opportunity knocked and I then became a photo assistant to a local commercial photographer, then