Human Nature

While completing my MFA at Indiana University, I experimented with still life imagery as a means of documenting the detritus and other insignificant details of my home. As this project progressed, I began to think about “home” in a more geographic sense. When I moved to New York City, I turned my gaze outward to the “forgotten borough” of Staten Island and began a comprehensive examination of the coastline. I became fascinated with the often overlooked places where human presence was implied by that which had been constructed, neglected, and/or polluted. These spaces intersect with the natural environment of the island, forming a striking contrast between the new and old, dead and living, organic and human-made, beautiful and unsightly, ephemeral and permanent. Although technically landscapes, these images are thematically and compositionally similar to the still life images I took inside my home.