“Shoji at Shugakuin-so”
My sketchbooks are chock full of drawings of natural phenomena: logs caught in a stream, bird nests, cells magnified 2500 times by the scanning electron microscope, rock formations, trees hanging tenaciously to nearly bare rock, great blue herons, twisted thistles, driftwood fragments, seeds picked up on a walk, shells found at ocean's edge, organic shadows from plants, striated stones or weathered bones.
My studio also is cluttered with nature's treasures I have found. Their forms and systems are mysteriously designed through eons of evolutionary processes. For me the natural world is an amazing phenomenon.
As I closely observe the natural world, it speaks to me about so much of life
about serendipity
about life's interactions
about destructive forces and adaptability
about nature's cycles, life cycles
about interdependencies, connectedness, and enduring relationships
about time and inevitable change,
about permanence, fragility, order and chaos
about reality and illusion
about links between shadows and memory
and about new life springing from old
The natural objects and phenomena I observe become windows of insight. My images in lithography, woodcut, intaglio or monoprint, are metaphors about life journeys.
“Seasoned by Time”, lithograph
“Out of the Old Come the Young", lithograph/monotype
“Becoming Lace”, lithograph/monotype