Over the past decade, my travels have provided the genesis for my studio projects. I mostly go where life takes me – residency opportunities, work obligations, and invitations from friends. The travel has created a sort of rolling process by which I spend time in places and bring back a great deal of both experience and photographic documentation, and then work with it in the studio or at the next residency, where I also gather new material for future work.
The common theme in my work/travel process is my fascination with ecosystems. By ecosystem, I mean any organism with complex internal interactions that grows up on its own, with no thought of me. The storks I saw in Morocco were an ecosystem, but so was the entire Chinese culture that I confronted at a recent residency in Shenzhen. There was a nature sanctuary near my Oregon residency that I repeatedly went to to watch the bird interaction. I’ve twice done residencies in the Big Horn Mountains of Wyoming and there I was affected by the Indians on the nearby Crow reservation. I’ve learned over time how to be quiet and not assert myself, and to be a good listener – to listen not just with my ears, but with my eyes, my feet, and my head. When I’m in a new place, I never know what will speak to me, but I know something always will. Back in the studio, I reconstruct these places through compositing and collaging in ways that communicate not only their appearance but also their particular mood and underlying strangeness.

Indeed, all my works are composites, including paintings, prints, and installations. I make single images (and even objects) from multiple photographic sources. While the works look hyper-realistic from a distance, up-close, the constructed and fictitious nature of the work is evident. In my paintings, I do this by creating each layer of space on a different piece of paper and gluing them down, one on top of the other. I accomplish a similar quality in my prints by collaging inkjet photos printed onto washi paper into my woodcuts. In both cases, the results are images that are read in two steps – one where everything is real and believable, and the next where things become more subjective

My work comes together most fully in solo exhibitions where all of my individual pieces become actors in an installation format. I design and plan exhibitions for specific spaces (and audiences) as opportunities become available. Each exhibition is for me a chance to play out my ideas in ways that expand my repertoire of materials and techniques. One exhibition might call for a performance, while another needs a sculpture and a third needs a sound piece. Any format I use serves to help me report back on all I have heard and learned in my travels.