I’m drawn to landscapes as the result of a train trip my mother took me on when I was young. We hopped aboard the Santa Fe Super Chief in Chicago and in a little less than forty hours we arrived in Pasadena to visit family there. The journey was pivotal for me, a four year old from Ohio, who knew nothing more than the tree-lined streets of small town America. Over the years I have never forgotten the distant mountains and vast expanses of red rock deserts I first viewed from the window of that moving train.
It’s probably no coincidence that my creativity soars whenever I’m traveling or on the road. When I’m a passenger in the car, I love snapping pictures out the window. Sometimes the softness of a landscape reminds me of watercolor, and I’m inspired to capture the painterly aspect of it. When I’m on foot, I strive to create a dynamic point of view by surveying the elements before me so I can discover the most dramatic angle to portray them in, or by introducing the most interesting array of textures, or by visualizing a scene in its best light. Besides being an artist I’m a poet at heart, so it’s no small wonder that weaving narrative into photography is my favorite form of creative expression.
I also seek to relay a sense of place in my images. Sense of place imparts an extra layer of dimension to an otherwise flat image, not only by capturing the physical space, but also by conveying its mood. Perhaps this is the result of advantageous lighting, or perhaps it’s a dream-like blur, but regardless of how it’s achieved, something special happens to an image when the shutter is pressed and emotion floods the scene.
The creative process is a solitary act, but I thrive on being connected to a community of artists. Vocalizing my goals aloud and exchanging ideas sparks my creativity and encourages me to experiment with new techniques, such as my interest in learning how to enhance photos through the use of beeswax layering and pigment known as encaustic painting. I’m also rediscovering the simplicity of analog photography; with film I can relax and enjoy the process without being burdened by digital settings. I love how a double exposure or an imperfection that may have been rejected years ago is now embraced as an art-worthy expression.
My work is mainly autobiographical in nature. Besides the snapshots I’ve accumulated over the years, I’ve compiled a stack of digital journals documenting my travels from the last decade. In September 2020, I created Pikeography, a personal narrative and photography collection that mainly consists of an online portfolio resulting from photography classes I enrolled in during the pandemic. I hope to bring Pikeography, which is forever evolving and continuing to grow, to a wider audience one day.