In the Darkness, Before the Dawn

As a child, daydreams were my escape. They took me to mysterious and wonderful places, far from the mundane farmlands of central Michigan. Soaring mountains and volcanoes, sparkling oceans, and rolling hills, like the ones I saw in the encyclopedia, dominated the landscapes. In those worlds I was free to be me. I belonged. There, where the trees knew my story, I wandered free from the torment of the teasers and the darkness of that house on White Hills Drive.

Twenty-five years later, having seen with my own eyes many of the spectacular landscapes that inspired my imaginative journeys, I revisit the difficulties of my past. With intuition as my guide, I manipulate disparate textures and imagery to create narrative scenes. The metaphors and recurring symbols throughout the work answer old questions, as well as pose new ones. While I felt alone in my childhood daydreams, these images suggest I was never alone in the first place.