BITTERSWEET

I am in a bittersweet time of life. My parents are in their last chapter, and I will be mourning the loss of them soon. At the same time, my children are creating new families of their own that includes a new chapter of joy for me. I am using forgotten objects and flowers as a metaphor for this time as they too have a bittersweet nature. In fresh bloom flowers and newly purchased items are brilliant and uplifting, and as they decay, they have another kind of beauty. My intention is to observe and bring attention to the beauty in the beginnings and the endings of life.

This is a current and ongoing project, 2022. Copperplate Photogravure

 

TIME PIECE

TIME PIECE is a study of vintage watches, inspired by the beauty and functional aspects of the mechanism. Long before the digital age of iPhones or the Apple watches, a hand-wound pocket or wristwatch was once a prized possession, a piece of jewelry that both men and women wore.  Not only were watches functional by keeping us aware of the time, but they were also considered a thing of magnificence and status. My intention with these creative still lives, is to bring back a bit of beauty to these watches found in the dustbins of flea markets.

This is a current and ongoing project. Copperplate Photogravure printed, editioned.

 

HOME

During these past few years, the pandemic has infiltrated our lives and changed the landscape of our everyday movements and surroundings. As I spent most of last year in my home, I felt fortunate that I live in a house surrounded by trees and nature of all kinds. As my routines slowed down during the year, I began to pause to take in small details about my home environment more than I ever had before. Out my window I focused on the lime green moss on the oak trees, the lemon tree bursting of fruit, the cutting garden full of roses, the budding of my magnolias and dogwoods, and primarily the songbirds that entertained me daily. I’d wake in the morning to their chatter and watched them as they flirt and fight around the bird feeders. I marveled at their freedom to come and go as they pleased, whereas I felt isolated from my community. This gave me pause to think about my home, what that means, and how our home is uniquely ours.

Turning the structure over your head from a house into a home is essential for a healthy foundation for security, family, affection, and memories. No matter if your home is a house, an apartment, or a tent under the freeway, we use whatever resources we have, to make it distinctly our own. Using vintage birdcages for this project, I collected tree branches, and flowers from my yard to create unique homes for illustrated birds that in real life, became my friendly community. Being confined either by choice or by design, the birds are a metaphor for how I felt at times over this past year and a half. I was surrounded by natural splendor but had not fully appreciated the joy that came from the beauty, colors, and music surrounding my home.

Wherever you are, you make it your home.

For this series I have used the alternative processes Cyanotype over Platinum Palladium printing. There is a limited series of 5 each printed at 6” x 6”.

 

MEMORY KEEPERS

The autumn of life is often more complex in reality. It is a period of life filled with loss and awareness to the travails of growing old and the potential of mental illness. My project, Memory Keepers, examines these elements, as two of my family members are afflicted with dementia. I am not focusing on the painful loss of them, but rather on the fear of my own possible cognitive illness, and the inevitable isolation that coincides.

In my empty house where there once was shrieking laughter of children and a busy life, I often experience loneliness and solitude. I am apprehensive that these feelings and my occasional forgetfulness is a foreboding of what is to come. My intention with Memory Keepers is to document something of this vulnerable time by photographing personal objects that conjure up memories of a multitude of life experiences.

For this series I have used the alternative processes Cyanotype over Platinum Palladium printing to give these items the reverence they hold in my heart. Each handmade photograph mirrors the actual object and its memory. There is a limited series of 5 each, 4” x 4” or 4” x 6”.

 

IMPERMANENCE

Nothing is permanent. In a matter of minutes, our lives will change whether it is subtle or grand. The things we attach ourselves to are only a mirage, beautiful and enchanting for sure, but in the end they are an illusion that will be gone tomorrow. Our planet, our home, our family, our health…all will change. Embracing this knowledge is difficult in a world where we consider there is a book, a pill, a bottle, or an app, for every problem. Letting go of what we cannot change or cannot plan for is no easy skill.

These photographs were derived from visiting the aftermath of a California wildfire in which in a matter of minutes, hundreds of people’s lives instantly changed forever. I photographed some of the devastation focusing on the beautiful patina of burned car metal. I then turned loss on its head by turning a typical image of a scorched car into these mysterious new planetary like orbs. The images stand as metaphors of places and experiences not yet known or explored. It is an effort to let go of photographic perfectionism and being open to what I do not know, and to impermanence.

These images are inkjet prints, 7”, embossed; series of 3 each.

 

GENUINE BEAUTY

Since the beginning of time, the female form has been considered an object of beauty to be used as inspiration for literature, poetry, and works of art. My series, Genuine Beauty, continues this tradition with a new perspective, which includes the female gaze, where my consideration of beauty includes not only the physical but also the internal self. Photographing a woman in her most vulnerable state is not an act that includes notions of power; instead, I seek to reveal my subject’s interior experience of womanhood, as well as my own.

Inspired by works of Ruth Bernard, Edward Weston and others, I photograph as a way to look for hidden secrets, strengths, and insecurities. Every woman embodies genuine beauty if she is willing to reveal her true self and enigmas. During our time together, my model and I discuss our shared experiences as females and what we want to achieve visually; a kind of femme poetry. This introspection allows us to work more closely together with integrity. The result is a photograph that is at first, a reflection of my own beautiful and sometimes-fractured feminine experience, and perhaps a universal one.

Making handmade prints using alternative processes, Cyanotype over Platinum Palladium, my intention is to give reverence to the genuine beauty of women. My female gaze and act of photographing nude women is a mirror into my own psyche and understanding of what I find beautiful. This is a limited series of 5 each, 4” x 4” or 4” x 6”.