These are straight scans of floral “landscapes” that explore the space between painting and photography, microcosm and macrocosm, interiority, and the world around us. From the confines of my studio scanner, they seek to build a larger sense of the possibilities for visualizing the natural environment and how we respond to it. The scanner is a long exposure camera that offers unique possibilities for creating light and space, the cornerstones of landscape imagery. This work extends a conversation that includes medieval illuminated manuscripts, Japanese ukiyo-e prints, American landscape painting, flower arrangement, and contemporary color photography. Through these many different areas of interest, I am interested in synthesizing rich images that encourage the viewer to reconsider both our ideas about what constitutes Nature, as well as our relationship to it.
This work is an investigation into the cyclical nature of time. Where the Pilgrimage works sought of out connections through place across time, these pieces seek out a dialogue across places through time. Specifically, these are composite images that are generated through the fusion of calendar images from the 15th century illuminated manuscript The Hours of Henry the VIII by Jean Poyet with images from the corresponding months in Maine.
By creating these composites, I am able to stake out personal moments within the seasonal cycles of time, and these islands within that larger flow create a constellation of experiences that both connect to the larger world while also asserting its individuality.
By creating these composites, I am able to stake out personal moments within the seasonal cycles of time, and these islands within that larger flow create a constellation of experiences that both connect to the larger world while also asserting its individuality.
The traditional Book of Hours was a hand crafted, personal guide to devotional practice for the faithful. Due to both the material cost and the time intensive nature, they tended to be small and intimate. Also because of this, the sense of the hand was paramount, in both the imagery and the calligraphic text. These works explore the relationship between drawing and photography in this context, and the idea of nature as a site for spiritual reflection.
The Book of Hours was a devotional book that was used to structure the daily prayers of the faithful. These included very regulated practices of certain prayers recited at certain times of day. Among these are the Vespers, which are usually recited around sunset. This is the transitional time of day when the clarity of day gives way to the ambiguity of night, when forms dissolve into each other and create new possibilities. These pieces are about that place where identities merge and create new ideas.