La Souffrance et L'Aventure Series Majestic Landscapes Series selected graphics 1997-2011
All of the works in the La Souffrance et LAventure Series and Majestic Landscapes Series are defined by a sense of play between symbol and language. Subjects as diverse as animals, plants, and whimsical wooden constructs are coupled with words or phrases, created in my own faux Romance language, that appear beneath the image. The resulting conceptual line between reality (text) and imagination (image) becomes ambiguous and serves to prod the viewer to construct meaning, or even a storyline. The purely descriptive titles, inscribed in pencil in the lower left margin, further blur the distinctions.
These purposeful and vexing ambiguities are felt even more strongly in the more recent series Majestic Landscapes, with prints that are both larger in scale and feature Nature in all of its sublimity, beauty, and terror. Inspired by my growing awareness of the fantastic landscapes in the American West, some of the images appear sunny and hopeful, with just an undercurrent of danger, while others are more overtly dramatic.