David Billet & Ian Kline's "Texas Is The Reason"
Jan Meyer Traveling Fellowship 2017 Recipients

Opening Reception: March 26, 2018 4:00 – 6:00pm 
On View: March 19, 2018 – April 7, 2018

This collaborative project, supported by the Jan Meyer Traveling Fellowship, was made during a two month road trip from Pennsylvania to Texas during the Summer of 2017. We went into this trip with our main interest being Texas and its representation to the two of us. We set out, interested in a larger understanding of masculinity, specifically in relationship to a current political climate where the shoot first, ask questions later, mentality has been resurrected. The two of us had never been to Texas prior to this trip. We had only heard the stories of this place and the men who have wandered this western landscape from our older relatives, western films, and literature. We wanted to look for ourselves to see what it meant to us to be a man in America today. The two of us wanted to see, as singular people and as partners, where we fit into this landscape that held so much influence to our understanding and our elders understanding of masculinity, America, and life.

We wanted to escape the surroundings that have been with us from our upbringing through constructing a new reality with these photographs, a subjective environment formed by the two of us, influenced by our surroundings, our memories, and the landscapes embedded histories. We were in search of a new place to call home, a place we had only heard about, a place where we could escape from the tilted watch of our forefathers. What we did not realize is that what we were trying to escape from exists everywhere; albeit in different physical forms and intensities, the psychology of our parents, our hometown, and the man in charge, were there in these new places waiting for us. It was as if we were being guided, softly, through a weird heat dream induced by conflicting feelings; feeling a familiarity yet also feeling alien in these new places. We found ourselves in alternate homes, similar to the stories we have heard.  

David Billet is an artist whose work explores the preconceived ideals of masculinity through portraits and space. Billet is looking at other humans and events that he experienced to interpret his own feelings about masculinity and make sense of his identity. He has been featured on sites such as The Heavy Collective, Aint-Bad, Self-Publish Be Happy, and Booooooom. He currently lives in Baltimore, MD.

Ian Kline was born in 1994 in York, Pennsylvania. He received his BFA in Photography from Maryland Institute College of Art in 2017 and currently lives and works in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His work has been published on the Internet and in the physical world by Humble Arts Foundation, Aint-Bad, The Heavy Collective, Don/Dean, Self-Publish Be Happy, Oranbeg Press, Booooooom, and VUU Studios. In 2016, Ian had his first solo show at Skylab Gallery in Columbus, OH.

The Jan Meyer Traveling Fellowship is an undergraduate photography award at Maryland Institute College of Art supported through the generous contributions of Jan Meyer (MICA MFA Photo Alumna). This year marks the 30th anniversary of her continued support and opportunity for our graduating seniors to travel nationally and internationally to create a photographic body of work.