Befall, 2023-present

Bark serves as a tree’s protective layer, shielding it from the elements and continuously renewing itself—until disrupted by external forces. Sudden temperature shifts, disease, water stress, and insect activity can cause a tree to shed its bark, leaving behind delicate, brittle fragments.  In my work, I photograph these fallen scraps, capturing their intricate patterns and textures—each a unique record of the tree’s life. The cracks, crevices, and irregularities bear witness to time, weather, and the impact of climate change. Using photographic techniques, I emphasize abstract forms, suggest the passage of time, and extend the natural transformations set in motion by the elements.  Through this process, a small fragment of decaying bark becomes expansive, monumental, and powerful. Larvae tunnels and lichen evolve into abstract landscapes—crevasses, constellations, vortexes. My work explores the delicate balance between fragility and resilience, expressing nature’s transformative power and serving as a testament to life, death, and regeneration.

Inspired by Anna Atkins' botanical prints from 1843, my cyanotype technique diverges from traditional uses in significant ways. I choose the imperfect over the ideal specimen, photographing the bark to emphasize three-dimensional form, volume, and detail, rather than pressing material flat to produce a photogram. I intentionally move subject matter during long exposures to create motion blur, expressing the passage of time and impermanence. By combining sharp and blurred elements into a composite image, I aim to express the precarious balance between opposing states of existence and the pursuit of equilibrium. I create these images to reckon with transience and loss, recognizing and accepting the fear and allure of transformation.

Limbo, 2020-present

Transformation is an inevitable part of life—moments when everything familiar is suddenly upended, and the world as we know it shifts beyond our control. These moments can be deeply personal, arising from accidents, illness, or the end of a relationship. Or they can be collective, experienced on a larger scale through natural disasters or global upheavals. Limbo is inspired by the terror and beauty of sudden, irreversible change.

In my work, delicate plants and leaves are suspended in an ambiguous space, caught between presence and absence, permanence and impermanence, past and present. Floating in a state of in-betweenness, they form relationships, suggesting narratives of connection, loss, and transition. By extending the time it takes to cross from one state to another, I explore the fragile space between dualities—inviting reflection on uncertainty, acceptance, and transformation.

My use of the cyanotype process connects to the tradition of botanical prints dating back to Anna Atkins in 1843. However, rather than creating flat, sharply rendered specimens for scientific study, I use long exposures, selective focus, and compositing techniques to intentionally distort and blur.  My subject matter is more than decaying plant material, they are characters—responding to unseen forces, caught in moments of tension and release. Through these images, I navigate themes of memory, transience, and loss, offering a visual meditation on the delicate balance between holding on and letting go.

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Peculiar Symbiosis, 2016 - 2019
This series of photomontages in diptych form explore the manipulation and transformation of art historical facts into photographic fiction.  I am interested in challenging the traditional masculine gaze of the old master paintings I photograph by dissecting the paintings into small parts and liberating the pieces from their original context.  The photographic artifacts can then be re-interpreted, distorted and manipulated to produce alternative narratives.

I use the diptych format to explore the shifting nature of memory and how interpretation of information is altered by gender, context and time.  The diptych as a whole offers a narrative that questions and subverts the facts of the original image, while each part a tells a different version of that newly constructed narrative.

I construct my photomontages so they that initially appear to be historic paintings and provoke the viewer to question the medium and veracity of the image.  My intention is to create an image that wavers between dualities: painting and photograph, part and whole, reality and fiction, past and present, male and female. Within the open-ended narratives of the pseudo historic images, I hope the viewer recognizes contemporary themes about conflict, anxiety, and identity.

Seductive Deception, 2015 – 2017
As an art history major in college, I studied master works and learned how each one contributed to the visual narrative of a particular style, time period, religion, or culture. I learned that iconic works of art were unique and priceless, to be guarded and venerated like sacred truths. Now I approach those same paintings as a curious photographer, questioning and dissecting them with each exposure. The fractured pieces are manipulated and transformed into a remix. The novelty and drama of the remix is seductive and deceptive.

The pictures I take of old master paintings represent selected facts. The camera frame isolates and fragments, removing parts from their original context. The photographs now liberated from the original artworks are like memories subject to interpretation, distortion and manipulation. Elements from various paintings are woven into constructed narratives inspired by experiences, dreams, fears and fantasies. The surrealistic tableaux question and subvert the facts of the original images. My intention is to create an image that wavers between dualities: painting and photograph, reality and fiction, past and present, true and false.

The 15”x20” archival pigment prints are mounted on hardboard and covered with layers of encaustic medium that creates a rich, luminous, and irregular surface. The wax and mounting technique provides the digitally manipulated photographs with a tactile and physical presence that evokes the historic artwork that inspired them.