LAND + PLACE
Part 1: Dolomites Backcountry
2026 (IN PROGRESS)
In contemporary American culture, our natural spaces — like so many other things — are often singularly considered by way of commodity. What can be built here? What can be harvested here? What can we use this for? What is changing here, and what does it mean for these resources? Even in restoring damage to an environment, the case for this work becomes a counter argument of commodity. If you plant a tree at your house, it increases your property value. If we restore the river, we can eat the fish. If you eat organic, you’re less likely to develop cancer. If you save this endangered bird, it will eat pests and protect crops. If you dispose of your trash properly, our drinking water will be cleaner. If we build a new park in this city neighborhood, it will reduce gun violence. While these lines of reasoning are sound, they also ring somewhat hollow to me. This logic does not speak to the feelings I experience while being immersed in the environment, and this gap leads me to believe that mainstream American culture is missing something big and universal in our relationship with nature.
The feelings I have when I’ve backpacked through mountain ranges, or when I’ve closely observed patterning in bird feathers, or when I’ve sat on a shore and stared out at the ocean, or even in my small morning routine of caring for my urban home garden — I am not a religious person, but I understand these feelings and experiences as something spiritual. I’ve experienced these feelings in nature my entire life, but I’m starting to wonder if I’ve taken this perspective for granted. I had assumed this is how we all regard nature – with deep levels of awe, curiosity, reverence, joy, humility, reflection, and respect. Observing what happens more widely in our culture, however, I’m starting to believe that this may not be the case. If we, our contemporary American society at large, connected to our natural environment on a nonmaterial level rather than a transactional one, I think our culture and our relationship with natural spaces would be different. This fundamental disconnect in the way (and what) we consider nature and our environment feels like a spiritual void. This new series turns its attention to this gap.
Parco Naturale delle Dolomiti d’Ampezzo. 2025
Civic Museum of Belluno. 2025Rifugio Biella (Seekofelhütte), 46.6657° N, 12.0845° E. 2026. Gouache on wood board, 48” x 72”
Rifugio Biella (Seekofelhütte), 46.6657° N, 12.0845° E, detail.
Parco Naturale delle Dolomiti d’Ampezzo. 2025
History of This Place, 46.14101° N, 12.21824° E. 2026. Gouache on wood board, 12” x 16”
Parco Naturale delle Dolomiti d’Ampezzo. 2025