I spent about two weeks at PLAYA Summer Lake, a residency for artists and scientists, in Oregon’s high desert. I relished the slowness, sunshine, and time to experiment in the studio. At PLAYA, I worked on lumen prints, using the sun to expose drawings, film negatives, and found images on gelatin silver paper. The prints collage imagery of holes, openings and circles: coke ovens, mine shafts, sink holes, craters, cysts, lumps and cavities to explore energy and mineral extraction, cycles of destruction, development, abandonment, booms and busts, and exchanges between body and environment. Prints will be combined with traditional gelatin silver, digital prints, and sculptural objects when I return to my home studio.
In addition to working in the studio, I enjoyed reading Camera Geologica, wandering the lake bed, swimming in Ana Reservoir, soaking in Summer Lake hot springs, star gazing, and visiting Paisley Caves – the oldest site of dated human DNA in North America.
