HOT HOUSE HYBRIDS I
The Hot House I and II series play with the metaphorical connection between flowers and the female or feminine and are meant to celebrate a diverse group of women, transformed and unified by bold color, pattern and natural forms that re-affirm the female connection to powerful forces of nature and the earth. These images also re-affirm my belief that we are not separate from nature or technology but are rather intrinsically, symbiotically, and inescapably defined by both. Mark Twain’s amusing re-imagining of Eve in the Garden of Eden in his book, Letters to the Earth, as well as Alice in Wonderland, the Wizard of Oz, Frankenstein, and other fairy tales have long been an inspiration for my work.
By combining photographs from my garden with watercolor to create digitally layered compositions that hover somewhere between the mediums of photography, collage, and painting, I hope to suggest that hybrid forms allow for revelations in making and understanding. With this evolving body of work, where I use the digital ‘DNA’ of one set of images to genetically engineer the next, I also explore the metaphorical connection between gardening and making art. Both allow for chance pollination and evolution and rely on the interplay of control and chaos. Gardening makes me aware that cycles of life and death are circular and eternal just as making art makes me aware of the creation and destruction that must occur in pursuit of new ideas and the images they inspire.