Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or the present are certain to miss the future.
President John F. Kennedy, June 26 1963
There’s something about the American spirit – inherent in the American spirit – we don’t hang on to the past. We always move forward….
President Barack Obama, October 15, 2009
While walking around on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington D.C. in 2009, I kept thinking about the phrase boldly embedded into the stone facade of the National Archives – a place of our collective national being and history.
WHAT IS PAST IS PROLOGUE
Somewhere Out There, Something Is Happening is an ongoing series of artist books of photographs and fragmentary text that meditates on the physical places and psychological spaces of the contemporary American social landscape. Each book considers our inescapable history and whether what is past is a prologue of something happening now.
Titles
Whispers from the Apple Orchard – impressions of stillness and quiet contemplation at the Manzanar War Relocation Center in the Eastern Sierra Nevada.
And Then The Sky Turned Angry – the seemingly organized placement of personal effects after an EF-5 tornado in Joplin, Missouri.
It Was A Beautiful Dream – reflections on the Native American experience and the history of Little Big Horn & Wounded Knee.
Lift Every Voice – retracing the locations of the 1964 voting rights movement tragedy in Philadelphia, Mississippi.
Lest We Forget To Remember – memorializing the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas.
Dance All Night – remembrances of victims in the aftermath of the Pulse Nightclub mass shooting in Orlando, Florida.
Forthcoming
Gardens of Paradise – examines the selling of companionship and “glamour shot” images of women on escort cards that become discarded the fountains and gardens of the Las Vegas Strip, an area known as “Paradise.”
Where Glorious Thoughts Dawn – a car ride of adventure from the ocean to the desert and the effects of climate change on the Southern California landscape.
Beneath the Dirt of Great Men – exposes the carbon landscape of oil pumping jacks and waste water fracking ponds in the Permian Basin of Southeast New Mexico and West Texas.
There Shall It Be – contemplates the beauty and destruction of old growth forests and clear cutting along the Oregon coast.
Artist Book Details
14 – 3/8 x 11 – 3/8 x 7/8 inches
Chiyogami silkscreened paper covered binders board with archival folder
Each artist book has approximately 20 – 25 broadsides, including 6 – 12 archival inkjet prints, 5 – 6 text sheets, reflective statement, map, colophon and index sheet.
Download Artist Book Catalog
Whispers from the Apple Orchard
And Then The Sky Turned Angry
It Was A Beautiful Dream
Lift Every Voice
Lest We Forget To Remember
Dance All Night
.