mountainESS series (diptychs)
2014-present
My series, “mountainESS” is about striving for contradicting ideals. Pictured are princesses, free-range kids, nature, and perfect plastic stuff, representations of ideals old and new. We are constantly pulled in multiple cultural directions, whether pop culture or traditional. We are progressing where at one point progress was out of the woods and now progress is back into the woods. We were and continue to be sold the idea that consumption and growth are good; however, we also learn that these are destroying everything around us. The photographs show how we reach for new and shiny and mix that with our attempts to remove ourselves from the cycle of use and disposal, and at the same time expose the results of plastics left behind.
Nature has a universal appeal, and the diptychs in this set are meant to evoke the sense of freedom and joy when outside, while on a planet where man-made objects now likely outweigh life on earth. Experts say out of doors play is serious business for the young (and old), which I find particularly true amidst the busyness and grind of my modern life and despite my accumulation of more technology. I am hopeful, and my visual stories in “mountainESS” portray beauty in unscripted scenes from childhood, created in the hills of California that is just a few miles from the bustling pressures of Silicon Valley.