Dead Aspen
The boulders have tumbled down from higher places. Trees lay scattered about in various stages of decay. Grasses grow around and from the remnants. Fallen leaves settle next to deer scat and between flowering columbine, mountain harebell and lupine. The stream has stripped the soil away leaving exposed roots, rocks, gravel and a glistening meandering path through the forest.
The sounds of water, wind and leaves in the trees mingle and flow. The aspen leaves fleck and flicker catching the light and fecund earth smells, rich and wet, waft on the breeze. Rufous-sided towhee flit in and out of stands of aspen, fir, and pine and rustle in the bearberry and brittle fern. The soil accepts its role as equalizer.
I am an observer but in time I will be a luxuriant garden without end.
Fall Into Winter
The snow is above my knees. I work after a fresh snow fall and before the wind blows the snow out of the trees. Sometimes I walk and clomp around in the deep snow and other times I wear snow shoes. In the past, I've tried to photograph the trees on my land without success. The snow creates another level of contrast and brings light to the area being photographed. Lines and shapes become well defined. In the quiet of photographing I experience a visual and personal clarity. The density is overwhelming.
DeCompose
After collecting magazines, maps, musical scores, art history books, and other printed matter, I tear out and mix up the pages and leaf them together, then bury them in the earth. Months later, I dig as an archaeologist with care and anticipation through a conglomeration of the detritus of our time. I then photograph each new discovery as I uncover layer upon layer of unexpected and challenging juxtaposed and decomposing visual material.
"...there is no real edge to anything, that in the endless interpenetration of the universe, a molecular flow, a cosmic energy shimmers in all stone and steel as well as flesh." From The Snow Leopard, by Peter Mathiessen
Colorado and the West, 1997-2006
So much of who we are and where we've been is evident in these places. My own values show in where I choose to look and in what I choose to include in the photograph. Mainly, I find pleasure in seeing these places.
Making photographs is a path to an awareness that is complex, dense and poetic. Following that path consumes me and allows me to tap into an understanding of the world outside of myself while I stay centered and complete. These phtographs are witness to that notion.
Colorado and the West, 2007-08
Form, history and metaphor are among the most important elements in this work.
I'm considerate of form by paying attention to light, composition, color, shape, texture, line and the marks these elements become on the surface of the photograph.
I look for evidence of history that will transcend in a photograph to express the passage of time and show signs of human experience. I'm making pictures about the human condition.
Through metaphor I allude to an understanding beyond the surface and create a photograph of depth and meaning in a complex world imbued with spirit.
The Garden
Most people agree, there is nothing like eating a sun warmed, vine ripened tomato picked fresh off the plant. Brushing against the leaves releases an aroma that every tomato gardened has rooted in their memory.
Gardening is not easy. Shovel work creates beautiful soil but also blisters on our hands and fingers. Dirt under the finger nails is part of the spring planting experience. An aching back is a topic that everyone working together can share.
Gardening brings worries and concerns. Did we plant too soon or not soon enough? How do we keep the deer and rabbits out of the garden? Will hail decimate the garden like has happened in past years? Will tomatoes ripen in time before the first frost? Are we watering enough? Can we extend the growing season beyond the first frost and into Indian Summer?
In the end, the bounty out weighs all concerns. Summer salads from our own gardens are spiritual. Zucchini abounds beyond what anyone can imagine or consume. Broccoli comes to a head stout and strong at the perfect pace. Eggplant, sweet peas, pole beans, carrots, peppers, and onions all create enthusiastic expectations as each performs its miracle of growth.
The bounty is not limited to produce. Growing a garden enriches the psyche, promotes community and puts us in touch with the earth and this place we call home. Having a garden helps us stay home and saves our resources.
The garden is a marker of time. It has a beginning, middle and end. It is a metaphor for the life experience.
Finally, for me, the garden is a place to be. Every summer morning includes the garden walk with coffee and conversation about what is coming up, what is ready to eat and how should we do things next year. This year, it was a place to make pictures and to have the kind of experience that picture making offers.
Infinite Regress
Six irregularly shaped aluminum wires all measuring the same length and thickness are repeatedly dropped from the same approximate height on to a white surface. The positions they assume in stasis are random and unpredictable.
The number of possible variations is unlimited.
Because the possibilities for infinite configuration is a given, this body of work and the potential for a resolution will never come to fruition. In the New Oxford American Dictionary the term infinite regress
is defined as "a sequence of reasoning of justification that can never come to an end."
The meanings of the individual pieces are much like a Rorschach test or an abstract drawing. The viewers free-associate to find their own understanding. I'm consistently moved emotionally by the energy and mood these lines, shapes, and shadows evoke, as well as, intrigued by the human gesture that is mimicked.
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