Artist Statement

I’ve always looked at things others pass by.  I am captivated by detail in flowers, landscapes, buildings, everyday objects.  To see that detail, I fill my frame with the object, much like a child holds a flower six inches away, her vision filled with a natural wonder.  I am awe-struck by the endless number of complex, perfectly formed yet still individual flowers growing everywhere I go. 

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If you stop and think about the lifecycle of a bloom, you quickly realize that the full flower was packed into each bud, from the beginning. It seems fantastical to write, but looking at thousands of flowers a year, I’ve not been able to answer the simple question, “How do the vast majority of plants turn out close to perfect blooms?”​

 

My photography also focuses on the small things in everyday life: the braided mane of a cowboy’s horse, the wildflower’s supporting undercarriage, the whirling dervish’s skirt.  I approach my subjects openly, without pre-conceived notions, with what Buddhists call practicing beginner’s mind.  For me, it’s hard not to marvel at whatever Intelligence, God, or Nature has mastered in creating our magnificent world.

 

I create images of subjects I get lost in, a place away from all distraction.  Often I am drawn to a subject that displays nature’s meticulous attention to detail.  Sometimes it is in the abstract, Edward Weston’s “completely outside subject matter.”  It is the way the lines undulate, the forms balloon, the riot of nature’s contrasting colors. My work can be both purely representational and highly abstract; much depends on one’s perspective.  I intend my photographs to be viewed in a large format, such as 4 feet by 5 feet.

 

All of my photos are an invitation to you to stop, look closely, and see forms created by light, shapes, colors and line.  All allow me to see myself as one of an infinite number of blooms, once perfectly self-contained and unfolding as I age.