Mother Earth

Connections between earth and woman can be found in the language commonly used in reference to each (fertile, virgin, bearing fruit, barren, pillage, drill), often focusing solely on either’s ability to reproduce or sustain life. The two are held to unrealistic expectations and standards while their worth is contingent upon the ways they satisfy our specific needs at any given time.

The Mother Earth series explores this comparison by juxtaposing a natural landscape and a nude woman, providing the viewer with an opportunity to consider the held value and treatment of earth and woman through a spiritual ecofeminist lens. I begin by immersing myself in a physical terrain and documenting form, line and texture on film. I then create a series of photographs bending and contorting the naked body into various shapes to mimic that particular landscape. This nude replaces the passive, overtly sexual and ready-to-please woman usually presented from the male perspective with one possessing real squish, stretch, life, autonomy and power. The work is completed as I carefully search the final photographs for a complementary composition, joining the two in an abstracted way that makes it difficult to recognize or objectify either subject but invites curiosity and careful attention, a catalyst to cultivating awe and respect. The ongoing series began in isolation in Joshua Tree, California, and continues with a variety of body shapes and colors.

Mother Earth III won the exhibition award in 2021, at Sanchez Art Gallery in Pacifica, CA. A two-person award show took place at the same gallery in the Spring of 2022.