Much of my work has centered on the investigation of our dichotomous relationship with nature. For many years, photography was my primary medium to lead this exploration. Taken in domestic gardens, garden centers and areas designated as “nature reserves,” the photographs that make up past series have often been large-scale semi-abstracted close-up images of organic subjects that are meant to both invite and repel the viewer. In these works, I often used limited depth of field and selective focus as “psychological triggers,” to evoke the small and often terrible dramas that occur beneath our feet and just outside our scope of vision. My hope is to render the mysterious beauty that is created through the collaboration between optical and physical “realities.” My approach to composition in these works is also meant to counter the “Sierra Club” calendar photographic approach to the landscape, which transforms nature into a safe, accessible consumer product. The way we think about nature is mediated by commercial and literary representations, and I am interested in communicating the tension that the camera can create between our perception of the natural world, and our interpretation of it.

In the past 10 years, I have also added mixed-media drawing and sculpture to my visual vocabulary, which further extends these themes into a more conceptual realm. In the drawings, some of which are large-scale, I use a combination of watercolor, graphite, ink, charcoal, clay, thermoplastic and sometimes collaged elements to further expand on the imagery and ideas found in the photographs. I have also explored similar themes in 3 dimensions in wall sculptures that use unnaturally-colored chenille stems of a variety of sizes to further articulate the expression of both the physical and cerebral experience of nature and the expanding gulf of our relationship to it. These vine-like forms, with their acid colors act as a metaphor for the poisoning and strangling of our natural environment.