The photographs from Studio Practice examine the behind-the-scenes environment of art educational facilities. Through these images I visually investigate spaces that speak to the nature of the environment in which art instruction takes place. My interest in this subject has evolved over the past twenty years as I began looking at the studio spaces in college art departments in which I have taught. These interior photographs examine the way in which individuals express themselves through the spaces they occupy. They capture ideals, sensibilities, and cultural values of the artists’ environments. The work of art (often in process), along with the props and tools used to create it, have become the primary subject of this enterprise. In these unpretentious spaces there is unlimited potential for creative expression.

What interests me in these spaces is behind or beyond the obvious and intended frame. I become immersed in the layers of associational possibilities and juxtapositions which occur within these settings. I am especially engaged with the encrusted layers of textures, color, gesso, and paint that these objects accrue through repeated use. These layers speak to the rich history of art as it has been practiced for centuries, and the quixotic nature of the creative process itself. In these spaces it is often the most banal objects that are to be transformed into “subject matter.” A clothes hanger, an empty can, an old shoe, or sometimes a photograph might become the subject of the artist's intense exploration. That these ordinary objects are often artfully embellished by their placement on lush velvet drapery or crowded by classical sculpture reproductions only adds to the mystery of the alchemy of art. The subject of my photographs vacillates between the artists who inhabit the studios and the environments they leave behind.

Studio Practice is an ongoing project that I started in 2009. The prints are archival digital prints.

The photographs from The Way Out West chart my responses to the Southwest landscape in which humans have insinuated themselves throughout history. Specifically, I seek to juxtapose 19th century art historical notions of the sublime landscape with the ways in which we live on the land today, and thus to draw attention to our uneasy alliance with the natural world. Through this work I attempt to present a range of possibilities for these interactions. At times we appear oppositional and destructive to the land in which we live and at other times harmonious and custodial. I am interested in the myriad forms this relationship takes; humorous, ironic, dangerous, and fatalistic to list a few. The frame of the camera allows me to isolate and organize elements in the landscape which reflect our complex interactions with the land, both mythical and actual.

These photographs are portraits of the land constructed and altered by human presence. Our collective cultural imprint on this geographic region is staggering. There are enticing remnants from its earliest indigenous inhabitants as well as signatures on rocks by early American pioneers looking for a better life, spurred on by Manifest Destiny. The term, "Go West," has come to symbolize the quest for freedom and opportunity. Now, with the construction of mega cities in the desert, the southwest is still viewed as a place to reinvent oneself, despite the obvious environmental damage that occurs when we choose to do so.

I intend my images to be as much about the invisible threads that connect us as they are visible artifacts of a contested terrain.

The Way Out West images were taken between 1986 and 2006. The prints are toned gelatin silver prints.

The photographs from Beyond the Plantations: Images of the New South present the contemporary southern landscape in all of its rich complexity.  These images are offered in contrast to the idealized or romanticized landscapes that are often illustrated in depictions of the south through literature, cinema, or visual art. Images of the Old South are often sanitized views of a perfect and prosperous plantation life yet ignore the conflict, conquest, and transformation that is manifested in the changing landscape. The photographs from Beyond the Plantations incorporate the physical beauty of the landscape within the context of its longstanding complexities and contradictions.

Beyond the Plantations is an extension of my southwestern images from The Way Out West, taken over a 20-year period in the desert southwest.  In this new series I continue to create images that examine the layers of change within the human-inhabited landscape -- geological, archeological, historical, cultural, and ecological. I see the landscape as dynamic representation of the complex relationship we have with our surroundings over time. It is the accumulation of layers of human trace within this verdant landscape that drives this series of photographs.

Beyond the Plantations: Images of the New South is an ongoing project that I started in 2007. The prints are toned gelatin silver prints.