Deep Waters
I make art with water. The series, Deep Waters, features my hands-on mono-print making process that integrates my decade long artistic practice with the watersheds of the Upper Midwest. This series of thirteen Water Prints evolved with, in, on, and alongside the Mississippi and Minnesota Rivers. I bring my photographs with their embedded river stories to open-air studios where the water and nature’s tools on hand mark, draw on, stain, paint, and infuse the prints. These art-making places are presently at the two rivers’ confluence, a farm culvert stream choked with runoff commodity farm sediment, the headwaters, a basically pristine trout stream, and a spot where a haz-mat suit was required to work with my hands and feet in the Mississippi River.
I make art with water. The series, Deep Waters, features my hands-on mono-print making process that integrates my decade long artistic practice with the watersheds of the Upper Midwest. This series of thirteen Water Prints evolved with, in, on, and alongside the Mississippi and Minnesota Rivers. I bring my photographs with their embedded river stories to open-air studios where the water and nature’s tools on hand mark, draw on, stain, paint, and infuse the prints. These art-making places are presently at the two rivers’ confluence, a farm culvert stream choked with runoff commodity farm sediment, the headwaters, a basically pristine trout stream, and a spot where a haz-mat suit was required to work with my hands and feet in the Mississippi River.
Minnesota River Dyed
In this series photographs that were taken during my many years getting to know and be with the waters and lands in the Minnesota River Valley are printed with dyes created with the bounty of Moonstone Farm in the fire pit at their culvert studio.
In this series photographs that were taken during my many years getting to know and be with the waters and lands in the Minnesota River Valley are printed with dyes created with the bounty of Moonstone Farm in the fire pit at their culvert studio.
Water Prints: Monoprints with a story and a sense of place
The Water Prints evolve with, in, on, and alongside the Mississippi River. For a few years now I have brought my photographs with their embedded river stories to open-air studios where the water and nature’s tools on hand mark, draw on, stain, paint, and infuse the prints. These art making places discovered over my years working in the watershed are at a confluence, a farm culvert, the headwaters, a basically pristine trout stream, and a spot where a haz-mat suit was required to work in the Big River. I make this art in common with the water. No matter how devastated the ecosystem the beauty is there for us to see.
The Water Prints evolve with, in, on, and alongside the Mississippi River. For a few years now I have brought my photographs with their embedded river stories to open-air studios where the water and nature’s tools on hand mark, draw on, stain, paint, and infuse the prints. These art making places discovered over my years working in the watershed are at a confluence, a farm culvert, the headwaters, a basically pristine trout stream, and a spot where a haz-mat suit was required to work in the Big River. I make this art in common with the water. No matter how devastated the ecosystem the beauty is there for us to see.
The Water Paintings
Bringing nothing but my watercolor paper I paint in and with bodies of water in the Upper Mississippi River watershed. The Hazardous Alchemy Paintings were created in and by the Mississippi River in the gasoline-invested mud I have discovered in Father Hennepin Park in Minneapolis. The Antidote Paintings were made in a to remain anonymous trout stream that feeds Lake Pepin (Mississippi River). The Sediments Paintings were made on the land at the glorious, grass-fed beef, perennial polyculture Moonstone Farm in Montevideo, MN. A culvert brings sediment from their monoculture neighbor's tiling runoff into their stream. This is where I paint. This art immersion deepens my love of the ecosystem and creates direct community with our troubled environment as I create new ways to work with the plants, currents, and mud in this version of the ultimate open-air studio.
Bringing nothing but my watercolor paper I paint in and with bodies of water in the Upper Mississippi River watershed. The Hazardous Alchemy Paintings were created in and by the Mississippi River in the gasoline-invested mud I have discovered in Father Hennepin Park in Minneapolis. The Antidote Paintings were made in a to remain anonymous trout stream that feeds Lake Pepin (Mississippi River). The Sediments Paintings were made on the land at the glorious, grass-fed beef, perennial polyculture Moonstone Farm in Montevideo, MN. A culvert brings sediment from their monoculture neighbor's tiling runoff into their stream. This is where I paint. This art immersion deepens my love of the ecosystem and creates direct community with our troubled environment as I create new ways to work with the plants, currents, and mud in this version of the ultimate open-air studio.
Devastating Beauty
I discover evidence of our human activities whether it be floating styrofoam, oil running towards the rivers or the side of a industrial-size herbicide container. In my working photographic process I seek to create beauty out of the damage I see. This makes our cataclysmic additions to nature not only more palatable to contemplate, but also more difficult to ignore.
I discover evidence of our human activities whether it be floating styrofoam, oil running towards the rivers or the side of a industrial-size herbicide container. In my working photographic process I seek to create beauty out of the damage I see. This makes our cataclysmic additions to nature not only more palatable to contemplate, but also more difficult to ignore.
Watershed Moments
Standing on the frozen water one day with a camera awakened in me an eventual shift from being a social documentary street photographer to taking abstract, lyrical pictures of the Upper Mississippi River Watershed. This has allowed me to see our troubled, complex relationship with the source of our drinking water and the creator of our modern cities.
Standing on the frozen water one day with a camera awakened in me an eventual shift from being a social documentary street photographer to taking abstract, lyrical pictures of the Upper Mississippi River Watershed. This has allowed me to see our troubled, complex relationship with the source of our drinking water and the creator of our modern cities.
