Series: Insomnia: Hotel Noir
Artist Statement
I am exploring my emotional ambiguity that I feel is created when I am traveling away from home, the disconnectiveness and
the feelings that occur by staying at hotels and motels. The stay may be for just overnight or perhaps an extended stay, but
never the less, I feel a temporary loss of connectiveness with others.
I am aware of the emotional impact can be further affected by my changes in the time zones, difference in weather, the
temporary facilities, and even the bed I need to sleep in to achieve my nightly energy and psychic renewal. For me, some
aspect of Insomnia occurs.
I had initiated this series in 2006. I have already had a lot of experience with frequent traveling, as it was required for
working with large multi-national corporations. My travel has resulted in long interment durations away from my family and
home, in one case away from home almost every week for three nights per week over a span of two years. I have also had
to endure trans-continental travel that resulted in nine to fifteen hour time zone changes, essentially reversing my concept
of what constituted "day".
At the extreme, a twelve to nineteen hours of transit time for a trans-continental trip can heighten my disconnection, with
plenty of time during the flight to reflect on the ensuing changes. Trans-continental travel can be exciting with the exoticness
of the New, but the changes in language, customs, food, accommodations and time zone can also be extremely disorienting.
For the long trips there and the subsequent return, the change in time zones alone will bring about my insomnia as my body
tries to adapt to the forced changes to rhythm and cycle of life.
Even with traveling with others, I feel the isolation and the loss of connectiveness with my family. Intellectually I can
rationalize the changes and anticipate the re-connection. I now have tools for maintaining some connectivity with the use of
the Internet and cell phones. But that connection has been only be a temporary relief.
The suggestion of this disconnection and separation is what I am striving for in this series.
Best regards, Doug Stockdale