Voyages

Several years ago, while on retreat at the Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, nestled in a remote valley in California's Ventana Wilderness, I wandered the grounds with my camera. I was attracted by patina-patterned etchings on basket-woven metal strip privacy screens at the hot springs bathhouse. I spent an hour or more getting lost in my discovery of color, shape, and the otherworldliness of their textures. When I returned home, I continued playing with my images, building on them to explore what co-creations would appear. The result is a series I have titled Voyages, for its abstract illusion of maps, forests, and other worlds. I had several favorites printed onto metal panels—returning them to my backyard fence, back to their source. A note: when I returned to Tassajara the following year, I was eager to revisit these panels and see what more I could pull from their organic designs. To my surprise (and disappointment), the beauty I was captivated by had been transformed into rust! Ah, yes, all things change…all things are impermanent.