Barbara Klutinis
I sometimes think of myself as a "colorist" and an "environmentalist" ... not in the scientific sense, but in a creative sense. Much of my still photography and film work has concerned itself with the creation and exploration of poetic environments which exist in "other" realities. In still photography I create these altered environments with the use of applied color, using Marshall Oils on black and white photos. It's like paint by numbers, but I make up the numbers. In film, I find it is the textural juxtaposition of abstract sound and image which allows me to create these surreal realms. My camera travels backwards over a rose garden and I hear a babbling brook. The relationship is textural, not literal, which creates a misalignment with nature. Film has also served as a cathartic and introspective medium for me with respect to my own life cycles, a creative outlet for hormonal fluctuations! My first solo film, TRUMPET GARDEN, about a fertile, mysterious-sometimes-scary garden, was a metaphor for my pregnancy. Nine months in the making, it was a emotional diary of my pregnancy, although I didn't know it at the time. My second film, STILL LIFE WITH BARBIE, was about childhood myth and false expectations that I grew up with, that I didn't want to pass on to my young children. When I finished my latest film, WIND/WATER/WINGS, I realized it was about menopause, because it explores nature/environments gone awry: my own interior nature, and the fragile environment I saw around me I have taught film study on the college level for ten years, since completing my MA in film production from San Francisco State University. I also teach Super 8 animation to middle school children