Decades ago, I realized that paint alone could not fully express what I aspired to do. Light became my passion. I appreciate its expressive and objective nature occurring regardless of the objects if falls upon. I am utterly fascinated. I adore it. I recognize its origin, what it has passed through, reflected from – its experience – and for that I am the moth.

But how might I work with it or control it? My passion to become ever more in*mate with light itself has resulted in an ongoing search transporting me through projectors, electronics, various motorized devices and of course photography all in an effort to create ever more multilayered experiences of it. Given decades of studio work photographing everything from burgers to ball gowns, I am comfortable with the medium. However, I have often been frustrated by its limitations – particularly those implicit in the medium due to limits of physics, film, and optics, to name a few.

For years I attempted to work beyond these limitations. Obsessed with photographic abstraction, I created large print compositions made from elaborate studio still-life sets. These photographs were designed to emphasize the properties of light itself rather than the objects comprising each still life. Using a custom camera and intricate lighting, I created a series of images consisting of photographic arrays of multiple high-resolution images. These became the starting points for numerous works combining the processes of both photography and pain*ng. These abstractions began to increasingly strip away object identity leaving only light itself. But what if I could bypass physicality? What if I could work with the impossible?

Enter the domain of 3D computer graphics. My long experience with 2D and 3D programs demonstrated many advantages over my physical photo studio, all of which added up no limits. This is beyond painting or photography. It is a direct encounter with light’s essence and Radiant Chorus is a perfect example.

-Tim Forcade