My goal as an artist continues to be what it has been for countless years: to make visible in painting and photography the exquisite phenomena in the natural world that speak to the human heart. I wish to be a poet, to speak of the transient nature of the seasons of the earth and of our lives.
As an art educator I have spent much of the last thirty years in the classroom and I am aware that I approach much of what I do as an educator. I believe that one of the greatest challenges we have as a nation is the preservation of our natural resources. The issues of global warming, clean and available water, and the control of pollutants must be addressed if there is to be an inhabitable earth for succeeding generations. My keen interest in botany and in conservation combine to be a constant thread that brings both subject and meaning to my work. I believe that my small, but hopefully significant, contribution to our community in which we live is to bring attention those details found in the natural world. This allows us to know in beauty and angst that heightened response that stirs both our mind and our senses.
Research indicates that both children and adults benefit from time spent living in the natural world. We benefit from the feel and sound of wind, the feel of dirt between our toes, the sight of a spider weaving her web. This research shows that experiencing nature is actually healing to both body and spirit. Children display much greater problems with concentration and acceptable behavior when they have experienced little but a concrete and treeless environment. We are creatures of the earth and, as such, we all need a direct relationship to nature.
Many of the subjects of my paintings and photographs have been found in a microscopic view of the phenomena of transparency and refraction. The lens of a camera can direct attention to fascinating details so often overlooked and yet, both symbolically and literally, presents amazing forms that allude to birth, growth, death, and rebirth. In these patterns found within the botanical world we may witness the process of life: after birth, the tenacity and fragility of survival.
“To every life there is a season.”