Over the years, I have had the pleasure of exhibiting some of my work, and it is always an honor to be asked to talk about my work as well. Here you will find a sampling of some of those times...

"Patricia Fortlage is an experimental photographer who has exhibited across the United States, especially in California. Notable recent exhibitions include participation at Gallery 825 in Los Angeles, Brand Gallery in Glendale, California, Soho Photo Gallery in New York, and Hyde Gallery in San Diego. Publications include features by independent magazines such as Women United Art, CanvasRebel, and Dodho. Patricia’s awards include first place prize in a juried exhibition by Soho Photo Gallery and several recognitions by the International Photography Awards. 

The current body of work focuses on a series titled Not As It Seems which conveys Rorschach test-like appearances of frozen objects. Patricia captures objects in the process of freezing in water with particles of ice formations. Capturing the process of freezing water creates distortions of various objects into complete abstractions which conceptually challenge the notion of assumptions. Because the photography remains based on actual objects and becomes captured in a process of freezing, the viewer will be left with trying to identify the composition only to be left in puzzlement. 

These crystalized slabs of mid-frozen theatrical props (or installations) convey a sense of monochromatic aesthetics, not so much because Patricia uses black and white photography, but because the composition remains consistent with a frozen mini-landscape, set up by the artist. The photography can be described as a study in texture and crystalized form, like a science project, Patricia conveys the deep aesthetics of water but in an unfamiliar manner using detailed close-up photography to capture the beauty of freezing water. Ice has one ton of pressure per square inch, such a powerful natural force creates physical properties leaving dimensions of bubbles, scratchy surfaces, and gem-like features. 

Sideswiped (pictured above) appears to be a floral-shaped object becoming crystallized and perhaps even destroyed by the process of being frozen. The unpredictability of the crystallization process creates smears of forms, shadows, scratches, and bubbles across the surface and around the composition creating an abstracted form of nuanced aesthetics. Conveying a complex T and X layout, the subject appears almost like a dandelion having pollen from petals exploding across the plane. 

Patricia Fortlage creates brilliant compositions which exemplify extremities in contrast and texture. She captures a deep aesthetic of objects in the process of becoming frozen in submerged water to convey a sense of gem-like qualities and castle-like structures and landscapes of crystalized form. Her art remains immensely promising towards bridging with new concepts of contemporary image-making in regards to integrating scientific and natural processes in theatrical and installation-type settings. These energized compositions shatter notions of abstraction and challenge the viewer to test the limits of visual comprehension through complex textures and variation in surfaces."

Michael Hanna, Aedra Fine Arts

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ideas on how I should look having a disability, how I should behave, what I should do about my health… if I should exist at all,” she explains.

The exhibition chips away at the stereotypes surrounding disabilities. “There is an overwhelming amount of discrimination, medical gaslighting, misogyny, and dismissal,” she says, along with the assumption that those with disabilities are somehow “faking ill health to gain some sort of perceived systemic benefit.” The reality, she notes, is the complete opposite. “The truth is, I AM faking it. I am faking WELLNESS. To do anything less leaves me vulnerable, dismissed, discarded.”

Her new series is designed to show “there is still beauty here, and power, and fight. That I have much yet to offer. Yes, there are challenges and there are truly gruesome moments… and some of that is shared as well… but I mostly aim to shine a spotlight on the resilience and fighting spirit and beauty that still lives within me.”

Viewers will see images and read writings from Fortlage that are both poignant and genuinely inspiring. There is a stunning image of the artist in a medical gown viewed from the behind, a trail of pearl necklaces running like tears down her exposed back. The image is accompanied by writing about the discovery of Tarlov Cysts that were only addressed by an out-of-town specialist after local doctors and surgeons dismissed her.

In her image “The Breath,” butterflies land on Fortlage’s face, caressing and sustaining her, as she receives oxygen through a nasal cannula.

“On the Menu” is a gorgeous still life reminiscent of 17th century Dutch Golden Age paintings. Along with the flowers and fruit in Fortlage’s image, there are medicines and medical devices. “File 13 or Circular Trashcan” refers to the medical system’s discard of patients whose chronic conditions they fail to understand. Once such trash can is the trivialized Chronic Fatigue System. The image here is a truly haunting one, a black and white photo discarded in a clear plastic cup.

“Manifesting” presents the viewer with a candlelit altar devoted to a variety of medications and treatments, as well as a pretty mask the artist wears figuratively to conceal her condition from those who tire hearing of it. In another image, a levitating double of the artist floats above herself as she lies on the ground, as she questions whether she is still “in there,” despite being unable to pursue her full-time job or athletic activities.

There are images of an overly familiar and thus no-longer frightening MRI tunnel; a piece titled “Weapons of Battle,” in which walking aids are displayed like precious samurai swords; and a lovely image of a perfect floral skirt worn by Fortlage above leg braces. Viewers also see the contents of her purse; the sterile emptiness of a doctor’s waiting room; and in “Elixers,” beautiful but frightening cocktails are presented in voluptuous focus on a silver tray, while medicines are revealed in soft focus behind them.

Also exhibited are a lush noir image of cigarette smoke rising to cause an immune compromised “flare,” while words of fragile independence describe the meaning of another image that reveals a disabled parking sign outside and parking tag inside a vehicle. The exhibition concludes with a somberly lovely and eerie image, “Troubling Thoughts,” which depicts the artist in a bathtub as seen from above, isolated, and alone.

This collection of images is as devastating as it is beautiful, and one that the artist describes as an outgrowth of prior work and who she is as an artist. “I am a documentary and fine art photographer by trade, but I would also describe myself as a subtle activist. I am consistently creating work in hopes to educate and/or inspire positive change… especially for women and girls. This work certainly builds upon that foundation.”

As should be obvious from viewing the exhibition, Fortlage is creating truly lovely and lovingly revealed images that also expose the need to understand “the discrimination, medical gaslighting, misogyny, and dismissal that those of us with chronic illness and disabilities face.” She calls the show a small step toward “exposing that behavior, in lifting the veil, and calling it out.” She hopes that viewers will join in her effort to do just that and lead the way forward with “love and compassion.”

Certainly this fine visual exhibition and its accompanying, poetic, deeply felt prose will encourage just that. Enter the exhibition online and prepare to be moved; and do tune in to the artist talk, Wednesday the 17th at 6 p.m. 

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Her dedication is evident in her current photographic images, as well as in her past work. “I began by supporting nonprofits and NGOs combating disease and poverty in developing countries,” she relates. She’s documented conditions and shared stories of struggle and success, helped to promote tourism in the poorest of nations, and overall, devoted her artistic work to furthering community development. “All of this work has been focused predominantly on women and girls,” she notes.

Today, her work takes place primarily in the U.S. “I have worked with programs that are rescuing women and girls from abuse and sex trafficking.  I have also created a campaign called  Wonder, girl!  that highlights young women breaking stereotypes of all kinds, in an effort to inspire and empower girls.  And now I am working with a licensed mental health professional who specializes in sexual assault and trauma.  We are creating images that depict what life is like for women after sexual assault.”

Fortlage works in both black and white and color. Her black and white images are dense, some with inky black backgrounds from which the central image appears to take shape and shed light. Of these works in which she eschews a multi-hued palette, she says “There are times when I feel color is distracting… and the story itself is just too important for distractions.”

Other images use crisp, clear, resonant color images that feel as bold as their subject, as with an image depicting Sierra Yamanaka outside the Pima County Democratic Party offices.

Overall her work is, as Fortlage puts it, “very solutions based.” As an artist, she wants to affect change, she believes strongly that her work is simply how she goes about doing just that. “Mainly I try to think through the topic of each series – the point of the story, if you will, and who the audience is.  I then try to get inside their heads to understand what would move that particular audience most.  From there I strive to create art that will achieve the desired impact.”

With her  Wonder, girl!  series she explains that she was highly aware that teens frequently viewed twenty-somethings as representatives of “what is possible, if not desirable. So, everything was shot in a hybrid environmental portraiture/editorial style, as though you are looking through your favorite magazine.”  The message she imparts here is  “Look at how cool all these young women are, and every single one of them is breaking stereotypes of some kind.  This means that whoever you are, no matter how unique, you are cool, too, so rock you,” she stresses.

For her  Life Sentence  project, Fortlage wanted to “help judges, juries, and the general public better understand the lifelong and often debilitating effects of sexual assault on women…  Some women will sleep in their closets for years out of a need for protection.  Others will go through one broken relationship after another, or turn to substances.  Some will end up with chronic illnesses.” All these scenarios the artist terms accurately as “life sentences for the victim.  The perpetrator of the crime, on the other hand, will often get a mere slap on the wrist, as though the embarrassment of getting caught has already caused them to suffer enough.  My goal is to change this. The thought is that perhaps if judges and juries could see an actual visual of what the victim’s life is like, perhaps it will resonate more, and the sentencing will become more equitable.”

Although Fortlage’s work is highly realistic, it also evokes a quality that is both intense and dream-like. The reason? “I want the viewer to have an immediate emotional reaction to my images, as opposed to an intellectual reaction.  My hope is that instead of having an opinion or beginning to assess my work as art, they will instead have a heart moment, one that will move them and inspire them in how they themselves move in the world.”

This desired intensity of action is just one aspect of what the artist wants to accomplish, however. “I also want the viewer to feel like the scene envelopes them, that all of a sudden, the scene has become all around them.  I try to accomplish this with light and luminance.  I push and pull the scene to create the enveloping process.”

As an artist and as a woman, Fortlage is deeply committed to creating work that continues to affect change for women and girls, and to work with other programs that are working for this same goal.

For the future, she says she’d like to “take things a bit more abstract so as to keep the viewer intrigued.  I am not sure exactly what that will look like just yet, but I am enjoying the steeping process.”

New work may steep, but her current images simmer with life, hope, and a passionate depiction of resilience. It is as fierce as it is fine.

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