Grids: Artist Statement

The garden is a territory where time, space, and self intersect. Traditionally an enclosed space, the garden invites entry, penetration, and exploration. It is activated by and appreciated through the body in motion. Cumulative in nature, the garden experience presents shifting perspectives, which unfold before the promeneur, creating a kaleidoscopic impression.

Ultimately, the garden is ever changing. It is only in assuming the posture of stillness that we can behold an image of it. As soon as we move forward to better grasp our idyll, it has disappeared, metamorphosed. We are always before it, until we find it behind us.

Laden with mythical associations, gardens also embody social ideals. Quite apart from any element of nature, they are carefully orchestrated, psychologically charged spaces that both reflect and exert influence over the collective imagination. My work focuses primarily on the classical French garden with its Cartesian foundation and lively interplay of sculpted land, flora, and water.

Like gardens themselves, my photographs offer a myriad of possible lines of sight from which to explore or meditate. Unlike gardens, these representations are frozen in time, suspended for perusal. Imperfect, myopic, mere shadows of a glittering parade, these photographs act as stations referencing a dance of desire.