As a resident, I see hints of our global distress. Agricultural lands lying fallow, earth surfaces sinking, and water rationing are constant reminders of the dismal health and state of our earth. This series, Waiting, speaks to the overwhelming passive response to confronting global warming. While many individuals seemingly acknowledge the record changes in climate, increase in oceans surface temperatures, and rise of sea levels, they continue to wait immobilized for change to occur.
It is difficult today to ignore the lack of social unity and the influence of greed, power, and material interests. It is easy to feel bound by our gender, caste, creed, and nation. The American belief that we are all created equal and possess natural constitutional rights that include freedom, justice, liberty, equality, fairness, and opportunity are challenged every day, but in spite of it, still worth the fight. Many continue to break through barriers to advance toward a better life.
With life comes strings, limitations, or boundaries. We can embrace the possibilities or remain safely in place. Both images in my Strings series speak to the struggle of choice and are examples of how image and words can play an equal role in the narrative. The self-reflective poem, Safe Place, forms a solid typographic block that visually expresses the heavy weight of the unknown and pressures to conform, burdens that are carried upon the shoulders of the figure. In contrast, the poem in Possibilities alludes to the positive inner voice that pushes the figure forward toward what is possible.
I am intrigued by the delicate balance between the wild and the intentional. We live in a consumer- and technology-based society that desires immediate gratification and enjoys the ability in the intentional world to undo our last 100 wrong moves with the press of two buttons: CTRL and Z. But we can’t immediately undo the adverse effects of the misplaced encroachment on nature. It takes one moment, one mistake, to destroy hundred’s of years of nature’s beauty within the wilderness forests. And the balance is broken.
We walk many paths in life. Many we choose, some we make, and a few we just happen upon. A path can make us humble when it shows us infinity. Some paths are well lit with possibilities. A split path can require a leap of faith. Difficult paths may challenge what we believe is true. But it’s what we make of the journey a long the way that makes life complete.