In this autobiographical series, personally symbolic patterns emerge through the elements, placement, and improvised combinations chosen from piles of my carefully crafted, unmounted prints. "Wet" darkroom printed, toned, occasionally hand-colored, gelatin silver prints are cut, archivally pasted onto glass, overlaid, and finally shadow box framed to produce images that follow an unbroken intuitive spirit of connection from experiences prompting initial exposure to their final presentation. An ongoing series of shallow, shadow box constructions (46 to date), these three-dimensionally layered, collages juxtapose elements chosen to work together much like Robinson Jeffers described his masonry building technique, “Stone loving stone”. In the construction of his “Tor” House in Carmel, California, Jeffers would choose, roll, and maneuver each irregularly shaped stone until it felt as though it was meant to fit with its neighbors in the wall.
These images are excerpts from my “Visual Autobiography”, symbols and signs of significant psychological states or events. Tending to respond to experiences that capture my attention with the immediate progression of unforced feelings and thoughts that resonate, I allow myself to drift away from conscious deliberation or verbal dialogue so that the empirical and intuitive can lead the way. I often feel compelled to make images beyond the documentary approach that is common in much of my work, to physically participate with subject matter in the moment and often after a "gestation" period that follows. Conscious evaluation rarely employed during the making of the exposures, my intuitive compulsions are followed. Organized chronologically, the autobiographical significance of the images produced in this way I more fully recognize over time. The results of this process form remarkably accurate entries in an on-going, visual diary."
