Hal Gage Anchorage, Alaska
		Listen to this artist. (AU 80K)
		E-mail this artist at halgage@alaska.net.

The roles that we play from early childhood on are endless fodder for commentary in my work. Right or wrong, constructive or destructive I'm not interested in conclusions but in questions. My "role" as an artist is to continually question myself and the world around me.

Questioning our sexual identity goes to the very core of our existence. Our sexual nature (gender) is set at conception. Our sexual identity (or gender role) is created for us and by us from the day we are born. The true ambiguity of our sexual identity drives us to manifest artificial boundaries and create gender roles based solely on the social and moral fashions of the day. These trends are as mutable as any other self-induced restriction of conformity. If history has shown us anything it's that there is no constant but change. What is the rule today may well be ridiculed as ignorance tomorrow. That realization alone is reason enough to question our intolerance toward ideas that challenge our preconceived notions of morality and sexuality.

Recently, I started using self-portraiture in my work not as an autobiographical element but as a way to move away from being a detached observer. Though I may not practice or promote the issues expressed in my work I do stand by those that do, and, in doing so, I feel that I should place my own modesty up for public view, making me more of an active participant.

My early training was in drawing and painting, but in college I became interested in photography. I was drawn to its ability to render a believable level of realism and at the same time its ability to distort reality. Though photography was my medium of choice, I missed painting. Painting is an additive process, the artist starts with a blank canvas and adds the elements desired. Photography by contrast is the art of editing. As photographer I am given all the elements and then remove from the composition that which is superfluous. The computer is the synthesis of these two processes which gives me the ability to create from scratch the illusion of reality.

I was born and raised in Alaska. I studied painting and photography at the University of Alaska, Anchorage. I have worked as a graphic designer and commercial photographer for 15 years and own and operate my own business in Anchorage. Since 1989 I have used the computer both for commercial and fine art projects. I have exhibited my digital and traditional fine art photography in numerous group and one person shows locally, nationally and internationally over the past 15+ years.