In 1999 I built a low floor platform for my flatbed scanner. I then invited friends to ask their children if they’d like to be scanned for a print project. All save one of the children was game to climb aboard the admittedly intimidating low-tech garage setup. The scanner had a 12”x 9” window and so I had to move each of them across the scanner making a dozen or so scans per child. I then loaded the scans into Photoshop, stitched them together and overlaid the imagery. It was a good time for parents, the kids and for me.

Writing about the work in the exhibit “The Figure: 3+3x3”, at the University of Texas at Arlington (2002), Jody Lee had this to say - “…The tattoos come from a wide-mouthed river of sources - religion, botany, popular culture and zoology, among others. That breadth makes them resemble the archive of references bequeathed to us all from birth, as we become socialized. The artist thus weaves together our cultural-historical memory and makes it visible on the litmus paper of the skin.”

In the early 2000’s I recorded interviews conducted by my wife, Rhoda Hockett, with each of the children individually using their finished prints as the conservation pieces. I then created soundbites from the interviews and musical elements that were performed live with collaborator Bob Catlin in Cardiff, Wales at an exhibition of the prints. The performance resulted in the “Our Children” CD

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