A collaboration with my former self

Since graduating with a BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute in 1990, I spent three decades as a working musician, photographer, recording engineer, and DJ as a source of fulfillment and necessary income. In the fall of 2020, I began pursuing a Master of Fine Arts degree at the University of Iowa School of Art and Art History, becoming an art student once again. I’d always wondered what might have happened with my visual art had I continued towards an MFA immediately after under grad. I liked the body of work I was making at the time and thought I would one day pick up where I left off, perhaps when I was as old as I am now. Using these old works as a basis for investigation and as a catalyst to move forward, I began a series of work I half-jokingly called A Collaboration with My Former Self. In this essay I will map the key points of this series as it has evolved over the last three years from simple beginnings to cataloging and contextualizing a comprehensive archive of artwork I have made from early childhood to the present.