My art arises from a childhood in South Louisiana, absorbing the relentless press of nature, which is inescapable here. Interested in images that blur the line between what is there and what else may be there, I am drawn to moments where the layers obscuring natures mysteries are slightly permeable, hinting at questions as well as answers.

“Southern Illuminations”

Created upon my return from several months in Maine, and seeing Louisiana with fresh eyes, these prints were made to further explore and celebrate the very different natural world found in Louisiana. They reflect my interest in exploring the multiple, simultaneous layers of reality that exist in the natural world around us. The addition of gold leaf is used to emphasize emotional qualities inherent in my experience of the material.

Created in nature, about nature, by nature - this work arose from the fundamental joy found in a garden by the sea.

Illuminated by the sun:

Each piece of paper was exposed directly in the sunlight after being hand coated with photosensitive cyanotype emulsion. In the process of exposure, objects arranged on the paper were altered or consumed by the heat of the sun during long exposure times. Often this process caused condensation and outgassing, embedding the paper with vestiges of the objects themselves.

Illuminated with gold leaf:

As illuminated medieval manuscripts were enhanced with gold and silver, gold leaf emphasizes emotional and imaginative qualities of these pieces.

Illuminated by contemplation:

Contemplation of these common natural objects, enhanced with the natural element of gold, offers fresh ways to encounter the world around us.

 “Passages” arose from simultaneous periods of transition, loss and growth in the lives of myself, my family, and several close friends.  As I photographed throughout this time, what coalesced were reminders that, while our path contains uncertainty, meaning lies in the mystery and beauty is in the journey itself. 

The horizon shape shifts, a shimmering mirage born of the minds’ eye.

While we pass blindly through the horizons of yesterday,

The path subsumes the horizon, illuminates the mystery. 

Carry a lightbulb.

In Louisiana, the land between the Mississippi River and its levees is “the batture”, from the French verb “to beat”; so the batture is, literally, the land that is beaten on by the river . Cut off from most interferences of people by a fifty foot high levee, the batture is a world unto itself. It ebbs, flows, and reforms, controlled only by the whims of the river. Sometimes under water, sometimes choked by vines and dense undergrowth, the batture is a transitional space fluctuating with the river’s pulse. “On the Batture” explores this magically ephemeral no-man’s land. 

Most of us who live along the river no longer have much contact with it, separated visually and psychologically by the levee. This project began with a walk over the levee at a friend’s home. Stepping over the crown of the levee, I entered a different world. I was immediately taken in by the powerful mystery and primal energy in this ribbon of wild land separated from towns, businesses and highways by the ribbon of levee between Baton Rouge and New Orleans. 

In South Louisiana, interaction with nature is rich, sensual, and immediate; we wade through humidity and pollen, live intimately will insects, expect that small trees may sprout overnight in cracks of a building’s wall and are not surprised when things left untended are obscured by vines or moss. As a child, this intimacy with the relentless press of nature led me to an attunement with the natural world as a mystical realm where anything might happen. 

With these photographs, I revisit my childlike relationship with nature, reestablishing a mystical connection with its less overt aspects. As I have photographed along the batture for the past three years, the project has taken on the feel of a fairy tale in which the landscape is animated both by a regenerative vitality and a feeling of otherness.

In Louisiana, the land between the Mississippi River and its levees is “the batture”, from the French verb “to beat”; so the batture is, literally, the land that is beaten on by the river . Cut off from most interferences of people by a fifty foot high levee, the batture is a world unto itself. It ebbs, flows, and reforms, controlled only by the whims of the river. Sometimes under water, sometimes choked by vines and dense undergrowth, the batture is a transitional space fluctuating with the river’s pulse. “On the Batture” explores this magically ephemeral no-man’s land. 

Most of us who live along the river no longer have much contact with it, separated visually and psychologically by the levee. This project began with a walk over the levee at a friend’s home. Stepping over the crown of the levee, I entered a different world. I was immediately taken in by the powerful mystery and primal energy in this ribbon of wild land separated from towns, businesses and highways by the ribbon of levee between Baton Rouge and New Orleans. 

In South Louisiana, interaction with nature is rich, sensual, and immediate; we wade through humidity and pollen, live intimately will insects, expect that small trees may sprout overnight in cracks of a building’s wall and are not surprised when things left untended are obscured by vines or moss. As a child, this intimacy with the relentless press of nature led me to an attunement with the natural world as a mystical realm where anything might happen. 

With these photographs, I revisit my childlike relationship with nature, reestablishing a mystical connection with its less overt aspects. As I have photographed along the batture for the past three years, the project has taken on the feel of a fairy tale in which the landscape is animated both by a regenerative vitality and a feeling of otherness.