Artist Statement
Community
Laying roots can mean just about the same thing for a person or a plant, and these roots are just as important for both. Knowing and belonging to the land leads one to cherishing and protecting it. Laying roots is the first step to developing and fostering a community.
This body of work is an effort to portray the concept “community” visually and through form. It is a call to find one’s place, but is also my personal acceptance of my bond with the Midwest. In my Polaroid photographs of trees, water, geese and other images I explore place, but through my materials I refer to the plague of sprawl that is clearly undermining ecological and social community.
In the piece “stand” I utilized reclaimed redwood timber to form a “stand” of aspen. To me, groups of aspen, with their common root and stalwart lust for life (try planting aspen next to a road or parking lot!) represent so well the idea of community.
The piece “community” is a collage of digital and 35mm acetate Inkjet prints that glows with the natural light from the window. The section of downtown Northfield, the phases of the moon, the water, and the trees are all overshadowed by the image of rowhouses descending from the north. The challenges facing the local area are a microcosm of those facing every community in the nation.
I hope this work connects to the viewer’s love for nature, belonging, and community. Perhaps it will encourage some to find their place and plant their roots deep.
We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the very first time.
T.S. Eliot, “Little Gidding”
"stand"
polaroid photographs, steel, reclaimed redwood
closeups
"community"
photography, mixed media
closeup
"place #3"
polaroid photographs, steel, OSB
see place 1,2,4,5