Hugh A. Atkins

Artist's Statement

“I have always been interested in margins. In the standard interpretation, to be marginalized is to be deprived, but the margins also offer a unique perspective on the mainstream. In this sense, the margins allow access to truths that we cannot see from the center. So it was when I moved from England to the U.S. I was removed from the familiar and my new country was still largely a mystery to me; however, only at such junctures do we see ourselves uncluttered by context.

And so, I continue to try to live in the margins, to develop alternative ways of seeing. Indeed, it is to this end that I work as a teacher, director, and as a visual artist. My present interest in collage focuses on familiar images and ideas that are presented in surprising ways, thus causing the viewer to question the accepted story and to develop a new version. The antecedents of my work lie in a lifelong fascination with the multiple perspectives that comprise our notion of reality.”