"In art school we were told to paint as if you were looking at something for the first time. I try to paint as if I'm looking at nature for the last time."
-Margaret Grimes


Recent upheavals in the natural world make it ever more apparent that nature maintains a delicate balance. My concern for this balance and how we interact with it are a driving force in my work. I look for ways to strengthen the connections between the natural world and the world of human creation by translating nature's forms and energy through paint and text.

The inspiration for the work lies in the native tall-grass prairie surrounding my studio in Kansas. This prairie is a stable and yet ever-changing environment, imbued with subtle color, reinvented by the seasons. It can be interpreted as a whole, as a spiritual body. It can also be studied on a microscopic level, each individual grass and flower breathing with its own life and color. Each casting a shadow that becomes another form to follow. Woven together, these grasses, flowers, shadows and spaces reveal a secret world without boundaries.

Complex patterns emerge from close-up observation of tall prairie grasses as they intertwine in irregular geometric designs. In endless layering, blades of grass become abstract pattern that can best be described as "fractal." Abundant in the natural world, existing in every size and shape, fractals have the characteristics of repetition and of boundlessness. Every layer reveals yet another layer of self-similar structure into infinity. This attribute of the tall-grass is symbolic of a time when the native prairies dominated a seemingly endless landscape.

Within this endless landscape emerge moments that reveal the personality of each individual blade of grass and each flower. No two hues are the same, no two petals identical. In order to capture the spirit of this individuality, I include a text with each piece, writing a verse that expresses the "personality" of each.

Combining work with camera, pencil, watercolor, and text, I create a "layered" composition that is both shallow planed and yet maintains a sense of depth. Movement develops out of fragments of light and shadow. Through the work, the landscape offers itself as a boundless whole and as a microcosm that becomes boundless, reflecting both its largeness and its fragility.