Words interacting with art interacting with you

I'm currently reconnecting with an art style I explored many years ago. The combination of words and phrases, interacting with photography and image making... all carrying a theme of automatism and abstraction. In the past it's also veered off into some form of social commentary... so I'm looking forward to where this examination will lead me this time.

As a person, I've experienced a substantial dose of positive and negative emotions. I often feel a lot older than 34, yet simultaneously I'll revert to feeling like a 18 year old again. It's these emotions and psychological attributes I am looking forward to visualising and sharing. For the moment, I am keeping it open... utilising the 'automatic' approach, just to see what pops out. Then, it will evolve and take on its own direction. It will find its own path.

I love the interacting elements of words and images, and the pictures you can 'metaphorically paint' for an audience. How can a single word or phrase influence your interpretation of an image? Hence, words interacting with art, then interacting with you.

Often, artists leave their work 'untitled' allowing the audience to interpret the image as they wish. I do enjoy this (sometimes), as you can make up your own mind. However, I prefer to give an image a title... to provoke a response from the viewer. With this particular style, I am going to take it a step further and incorporate words/phrases into the canvas space. Thus influencing the audiences interpretation of the image.

What connections can be made between a word and an image, that you would not normally put together? What reaction would you have? Could it perhaps fuel a new chain of thought, leading to a source of inspiration? Or could it perplex and confuse the viewer?

Either way I want it to stir a reaction, provoke the viewer and get them thinking... whilst at the same time satisfying the aesthetic requirements that make art.

Barbara Kruger was my main influence back in 1997. I love the way she mixes her distinct typographic styling, with photographic images. It's that juxtaposition that I find so appealing, exciting and thought provoking.