​When writing about the natural world—the forest in particular—Bachelard refers to it as a “before me, before us” place, a place of history and grounding; and in many ways these images allow me to make a connection with the past.  Through them I am reaching back to a time when my ancestors viewed the natural world as a place that was both sacred and profane, a place that was filled with life, death and regenerative energy.  Bachelard writes of the “ancestral pull” of the forest and this work is my response to the expansive appeal of that pull. One could say that I am using the natural world as a mirror, allowing certain aspects of myself to push through, while others recede into the shadows.

​Many people enter the woods to lose themselves, to escape the world around them.  However, I think I enter natural spaces to find myself and better understand my place in the world.