The Woods, silver prints, size variable, 1999-2003

My relationship to the land has always been tenuous. my appreciation of the plastic perhaps greater than the real. So I began my exploration of the land from a familiar vantage point, my car, but was quickly drawn closer and , eventually into the woods. Frequently lost therein I was fearful of heights, fearful of the unknown. Imagination came into play both then and now . . . imagined creatures and events in the extreme, from Disney to dementia.
With this work I chose to respond to the exterior scale, treating the prints in a looser, more painterly fashion. I worked with collaged and cut negatives, selectively bleaching and toning the images. There was also a response to the interior space, large but constructed/constricted by a dense linear weaving. Trapped in nature’s net, the discomfort was delicious!