Mercury Vapor Studio
Collaborative Statement

We are a team of two artists who work together under the name Mercury Vapor Studio. Adrain Chesser was given his first camera more than 20 years ago and has been taking pictures ever since. He is a photographer who over the years has developed a working style which often involves using aspects of ritual to capture his photographs. Timothy White Eagle spent his twenties involved in theater, visual and performance art. He spent his thirties diving deeply into ceremonial ritual, working extensively with native American, pagan and Haitian traditions.

Together we explore the intersection between art and ritual. We use ritual to create an environment of opening and safety. Together with our subjects we go into an undiscovered country. We ask our subjects to expose their truth. Through our lens we seek that same truth. We do our best not to expect anything in particular from a shoot. We play the sacred fool stepping off the cliff, trusting that we have everything we need. Trusting the Muse to flow through and with us, guiding us to a place of beauty. 


As children we lived on opposite sides of the country, Adrain in Florida and Timothy in Washington state we both lived in small towns on streets without street lights. At around age ten, both our fathers installed a mercury vapor lights in our separate back yards. The light became a safety zone, past the light for Adrain there was Florida jungle, for Timothy there was forest. The light itself became something to watch. Light had the ability to transform the dark night. This light was a stimulant to our consideration of the visual world. 


It is said that exposure to the fumes of mercury vapor used in early photographic processes had the ability to make one crazy. We like that about the name as well.

Timothy White Eagle
whiteeaglesmail@yahoo.com

BIOGRAPHY
I am a White Mountain Apache who after being giving up for adoption, grew up in a lower middle class white home with very little connection to the traditions of my ancestors.  In college I studied theater. I became bored with traditional theater and started to create improvisational performance art around Seattle. At the same time I started attending earth based spiritual rituals. I began to incorporate elements of ritual into my performances. The place of creation, the place of improvisation, the place of the muse is also the place of healing at the heart of a native American ceremony. Through art I found my way home, I arrived at my first native ceremony in 2000 already a veteran, I understood the terrain. At their core a native healing ceremony and a true creative space are the same terrain. I have spent much of the last ten years exploring ritual and trance in native ceremony.    


It has been a long passage, from artist to ritualist and now to be back combining all that I have learned with the goal of creating imagines and art which are reflective of that heart of ceremony. The goal is to find that space of pure creation, to capture beauty, truth and healing.  I believe in the revolutionary power of art.  I believe art and ceremony can heal us. I believe the muse has something to say.  I invite her in and offer my tools for her purpose.


RESUME

Education


1990 Graduated, University of Utah, BFA Theater Arts

1987 Graduated, Rick’s College, Assoc. Theater Arts


Performing Arts


1996 to 2001 Creator/owner/operator/ringmaster, Coffee Messiah (listed Washington’s Best Places 2000, Best of Seattle-Seattle Weekly 2000, Best late night, Seattle Times 1998)

1998 to 1999 Creator, Death-by, walk by installation/performance art, sidewalks of Seattle
1996 to 2000 Master of Ceremonies, Cabaret of Despair/AM Cabaret, Seattle, WA

1984 to 1998 involved in over 50 theater productions in a wide variety of roles, including, Directing, stage management, acting, light design and set design.


Ritual/Performing


2007 Initiated as Vodou Oungan (Priest), Le Source Ancienne Ounfo, New Orleans, LA
2003 to present, Song leader, Naraya, Dance for all People

2002 to present, Work circle leader, Naraya, Dance for all People

2000 to present Mentored under Bannock/Shoshone teacher Clyde Hall 

1997 to present, co-creator, Beltaine/Samhain ritual performance, Wolf Creek, OR

Visual Arts

1996 to 2000 I created a series of altars and window displays in a retail store front, including  “Crucified Christmas”, “Caffeine Saves”, “A Virgin On High”, “Which one of these things is not like the other”, “Broken Heart”, Seattle, WA
1998 12"x12" group show, Walker Gallery, Seattle, WA