THE LIVING
I began this work as something of a tribute or memorial to essential things learned from my parents and family. While making each image, the concept evolved to embrace larger, more universal gifts of life. In visually exploring my simple surroundings I experienced a profound appreciation of the esthetic magic of nature and its immediate ties to home and hearth. I find deep solace in the natural world in and around my Southern California house and wanted to bring elements of that world into a created interior space. Constructing sets or tableaux of some type have long been a part of my practice, whether for performance, photography or merely for my own amusement. With this work I chose to construct or alter environments and combine those sets with found and organic elements, which I then photographed. Keeping things a notch or two from a literal reality allows me a separation from the clutter of life, while focusing on the objects and sensations of my wonderment.