Water Series
The Water Series addresses water issues in California. Much of California is desert: the majority of the state receives little or no rain for 6 months out of each year. This condition makes it difficult to develop agriculture or sustain a large population without human intervention. During the 20th century huge scale human interventions took place to transport water from other states via aqueducts, build dams and reservoirs and pump ground water. These projects are awesome in their magnitude and have an eerie beauty as feats of engineering yet they have also destroyed the natural landscape. We rely on this water everyday to live yet we have created an infrastructure that is not sustainable in the long term. This series invites the viewer to ponder these contradictions in beauty and our long term strategies for sustainable development.
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Title: Desert City Grid
Year: 2000
Dimensions: 12"h x 12"w x 2" d
Media: Original photographs, handmade paper, handpainted silks, layered using polyurethane.
Statement: We build cities in the desert where there is little naturally occurring water - is this really a sustainable way to live?
Title: Natural Desert
Year: 2000
Dimensions: 12"h x 12"w x 2" d
Media: Original photographs, handmade paper, handpainted silks, layered using polyurethane.
Statement: Sand dunes are an example of the power of water and wind in the desert. The fine grains making up sand dunes were once massive solid rock, perhaps part of a high mountain range. When violent thundershowers pound upon the rocks, minerals leach away and the rock's structure weakens and pieces break off and tumble away. With the aid of more water and power winds, the pieces get smaller. Finally sand begins to drift, eventually drifts turn into dunes.
Exhibition History: April 3 - May 4, 2002 34th Annual Textile Exhibit, Olive Hyde Gallery, Fremont, CA.
Title: Watershed
Year: 2000
Dimensions: 12"h x 12"w x 2" d
Media: Original photographs, handmade paper, handpainted silks, layered using polyurethane.
Statement: The first step in preserving the quality of our water (and therefore the quality of our lives) is preserving the watersheds where the water originates. The photograph used in this collage was taken in Tuolumne Meadows after a classic summer afternoon thunderstorm. The Tuolumne River watershed provides drinking water for the city of San Francisco and many other cities in the Bay Area. Given that the human body is 50-65 percent water, wouldn't it be nice if the source of that water was as pure as possible?
Exhibition History: Feb - May 2002 Yosemite Renaissance XVII, Yosemite Museum Gallery, Yosemite National Park, CA
Title: Desert Sunset
Year: 2001
Dimensions: 12"h x 12"w x 2" d
Media: Original photographs, handmade paper, handpainted silks, layered using polyurethane.
Statement: A celebration of the desert in its natural state.
Title: Valley Salad Bowl
Year: 2001
Dimensions: 12"h x 12"w x 2" d
Media: Original photographs, handmade paper, handpainted silks, layered using polyurethane.
Statement: The San Joaquin Valley in Central California was once a desert. Water has been imported from the northern parts of the state and from other states to turn this desert into a fertile farming valley where a large percentage of the United States' fresh produce is grown. Each year more salts are leached out of the soil and eventually the entire valley will be unsuitable for agriculture.
Title: Owens Pipeline
Year: 2000
Dimensions: 12"h x 12"w x 2" d
Media: Original photographs, handmade paper, handpainted silks, layered using polyurethane.
Statement: The Owens Pipeline began draining Owens Lake in 1924, transporting water upstream of the lake to Los Angeles. The lake was once 15 miles long, 10 miles wide and 30 feet deep. It is now a dry lake. On windy days, great clouds of alkali dust rise from the lake and travel as far as 100 miles, causing air pollution and respiratory problems.
Title: Yosemite Dogwood
Year: 2005
Dimensions: 12"h x 12"w x 2" d
Media: Original photographs, handmade paper, handpainted silks, layered using polyurethane.
Statement: Every May I am drawn to Yosemite to see the elegant white flowers of the dogwood trees. When I visit the now flooded Hetch Hetchy Valley, I wonder how many of these beautiful trees used to live in what is now underwater.
Title: Headstream
Year: 2001
Dimensions: 12"h x 12"w x 2" d
Media: Original photographs, handmade paper, handpainted silks, layered using polyurethane.
Statement: High atop the Sierra Crest is where the headstream originates. This is where snowmelt joins the watershed for the first time.
Title: Mono Source
Year: 2001
Dimensions: 12"h x 12"w x 2" d
Media: Original photographs, handmade paper, handpainted silks, layered using polyurethane.
Statement: The sources of water for Mono Lake originate in the Eastern Sierra and are vital for all of the ecosystems surrounding the lake.