The Imagined Landscape

This body of work reflects, in part, my experience of the landscape while living in Fargo, North Dakota for two years. The razor sharp horizon line and the vast stretches of flat earth had a tremendous impact on me. These landscape works were made after I left the Great Northern Plains. They are a blend of my memory of Fargo and my history with the landscape of Michigan. Slowly the flat, sharp horizon gives way to water and sand dunes, trees and floating rocks. None of these works were made from direct observation. They are based on study, familiarity, memory, and imagination. 

It is the earth as I imagine it--the land, the water and the sky--stretching before me in silence, solitude and stillness, that inspires deep thought and emotion. It is the vast, infinite, uninterrupted flow of space, the sense of wholeness and timelessness, that turns me inward. The earth becomes a metaphor for the human condition and the dilemmas of human existence, imbued with a spirit common to all life and an aura of existential loneliness. Contemplation is invited beyond the specifics of time and place. The earth becomes a mirror to the soul, relentlessly reflecting, encouraging introspection, drawing me toward a deeper and sometimes darker self.

In the words of critic Eleanor Heartney, "Landscape becomes a way of thinking about the world...its external manifestations become a window on the otherwise inaccessible world of the spirit. The world we imagine has just as much power and emotional truth as the one we simply see."