About
My compositions are based on three key ingredients:
simplicity of line
harmony of proportion
equality of attention (to the entire visual field)
These are the design qualities I trained myself to see in the gardens of Kyoto, Japan. During my yearlong stay I was fortunate to work with garden designer Kinsaku Nakane and photographer Katsuhiko Mizuno, both masters of their art forms. Through the years I have continued to return to Kyoto as a source of aesthetic inspiration.
My lectures and photography workshops are based on my belief that photography is as much a gateway to the inner world of the photographer / viewer as it is to the beauty displayed in the outer world. A garden is a setting for an experience on multiple levels – simultaneously sensual, aesthetic and spiritual. In fact, this experience is the intended result of a well-designed garden. Can it be faithfully represented in an image ? This is the goal of learning to see as a garden photographer.
For the past few years I have also been exploring the macro world of flowers. The rational and the lyrical, the formal and the abstract, the known and the unknown … this is the world within a flower, and this is the world I inhabit as a photographic artist.
SHOWS
2011 ‘Flow’, 1-man show, I Witness Gallery, Portland, OR
2011 ‘Japan Relief Benefit Show’, PHOTO Gallery, Oakland, CA
2011 ‘Kodachrome in Bloom’, Luz Gallery, Victoria BC
2010 ‘Retrospective Show’, Luz Gallery, Victoria BC
2010 ‘Sensing Spirit’, 1-man show, Luz Gallery, Victoria BC
2002 ‘Nature and Spirit: Reflections on the Gardens of Kyoto’, 1-man show, World Forestry Center, Portland, OR
1994 ‘The Gardens of Kyoto’, 1-man show, Portland Japanese Garden, Portland, OR
AWARDS & GRANTS
2006 Garden Writer’s Assoc. Silver Award, Magazine photography
2004 GWA Garden Globe Award. Newspaper photography
2002 GWA Garden Globe Award, Portfolio
2000 GWA Quill & Trowel Award, Portfolio
1999 GWA Quill & Trowel Award, Magazine cover
1999 GWA Quill & Trowel Award, Book photography
1995 Regional Arts & Cultural Council, Portland, OR – technical assistance grant
1994 Regional Arts & Cultural Council, Portland, OR – technical assistance grant
BOOKS PUBLISHED – SOLE PHOTOGRAPHER
2007 Garden to Vase, Timber Press
2001 Artists in Their Gardens, Sasquatch Books
2000 Garden Retreats, Chronicle Books
1998 Naturalistic Gardening, Sasquatch Books
1998 Gardening from Scratch, Simon & Schuster
1998 Tea Gardens, Chronicle Books
PERMANENT COLLECTIONS
Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon
Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum, Washington DC
General Electric Management Development Institute
Private collections in the US, Canada, Japan and Europe
JUROR
2003, 2005, 2009, 2010 — Garden Writers Association National Media Awards, Washington, DC
1998-2000 — Northwest Flower & Garden Show, Seattle, WA
EDUCATION
1976 MFA, Washington University, St. Louis, MO
1974 BA, Hampshire College, Amherst, MA
