Found natural still lives and trees as metaphorical portraits, the photographs in this series, Presence, depict my experience as Burchfield Penney Art Center 2013 Artist-in-Residence. The work has emerged from my intuitive process exploring two landscapes with an 8x10-inch camera and portrait lens: across the street from Charles Burchfield’s former home in Gardenville, NY, now a nature preserve; and in the backyard of my home in the Catskill Mountains.

Presence celebrates my kinship with Burchfield, which is based on a reverence for and anthropomorphic vision of the natural world, an appreciation for solitude as well as close relationships, and a commitment to creative freedom.