1:“…so she waited three nights ‘til the moon came full…” (Medea).

Much of my work is inspired by Ovid’s ‘Metamorphoses’. I depict Medea in her young glory as a sorceress, incarnation of female power. She is clothed in magic invocations inscribed onto oiled papers using inks, twigs and leaves. A second Medea crouches at her feet, head in hands. Is she washing her hair as Ovid describes? Or does she foreshadow the future, driven mad by the gods?

2: “......drowsy is your
mouth, your eyes are sticky
with dreams and you have
a sloppy body
from being brought to bed of crocuses
When you sing in your whiskey-voice
the grass rises on the head of the earth
and all the trees are put on edge”
e.e.cummings (Ghost Writing series)

The ‘Ghost Writing’ series arose during a period of turmoil as I roamed the National Arboretum, almost unconsciously, with my camera. The resulting photographs seemed to be evidence of a natural calligraphy in trees, stones, spiderwebs, twigs, bark, earth. The constant growth and layering of natural processes seemed to contain a message about time, memory and healing. I immersed myself in these images, along with the poetry of e.e.cummings, and these works are the result.

3: Huiio the Plumed Serpent

For ‘Mirar/Mirror’, a solo show at the Embassy of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, I explored parallels between Ovid’s ‘Metamorphoses’ and the indigenous myths of Venezuela. Cosmic snakes are involved in the creation myths of both. From the peoples of the Orinoco and the Amazon arose a worship of the plumed serpent, also known as Huiio, the supernatural anaconda, mistress of all water and mother of everything living in it.

4: Ancestor

5: Saman/Shaman

Another piece from ‘Mirar/Mirror’, the exhibition at the Embassy of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. Here the ancient saman tree near Maracay incorporates a Shaman, sitting in the traditional pose of the Setawa Kaliana, the great Shaman masters dwelling in Heaven.

6: Blue Centaur World-wasting

From the solo exhibition ‘Collateral Damage’ which centered around Ovid’s narrative about Caenis, - a tale of persecution, destruction of the landscape, militaristic hubris, gender confusion and above all the desolation and waste of war. The battle between the Centaurs and the Lapiths is the climax of the story.

7: Al-most touch-ing (White Peach)

In the ‘Al-most Touch-ing’ series, I explore that highly-charged gap of desire- the distance between touching and not-touching. In the intricate surfaces, veils are drawn back to give us a glimpse of perfect intimacy - yet this world is an illusion, surrounded by complications.

8: Sleep holds the World

From the exhibition ‘SeaChanges’, a visual interpretation of Ovid’s story of Ceyx and Alcyone. Morpheus, the King of Sleep, is imagined as Ovid describes him, holding the world in darkness.

9: Lotus/Lotis: Deep

The Lotus, sacred in many cultures, was to Ovid a transformed nymph, Lotis.

10: Lotus/Lotis: Blue

The Lotus, sacred in many cultures, was to Ovid a transformed nymph, Lotis.

11: Pomona and Vertumnus

Pomona was a wood nymph whose passion was gardening. Many men tried to woo her but she had no interest in any of them, including Vertumnus, who assumed many disguises in his attempts to seduce her.

Finally, disguised as an old woman, he won her heart through his storytelling, and his persuasive analogy of the elm and the grapevine.

Seated in her orchard, he pointed out a muscular elm draped in the coils of a lush grapevine as the perfect advertisement for marriage and interdependence. The vine needs the support of the tree, the tree gains a useful function: both flourish.

The ancient Camperdown Elm in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park also inspired these limbs.