Making Sense of the Journey

Last month, Ann Jastrab, Executive Director of the Center for Photographic Art, asked if I’d be interested in giving an online talk about my work. I’d recently won the People’s Choice Award at the Members’ Exhibition, and she thought people might enjoy hearing more about my process and the path that led me here.

It was an interesting coincidence because I’d just finished helping my mom, a painter, create a catalog for her retrospective at the Chico Art Center. At first, she wasn’t sure she even wanted a catalog, but as we worked through decades of artwork, she realized it gave her a rare opportunity to step back and make sense of the journey she’d taken as an artist.

That’s exactly the experience I’ve been having as I’ve put this presentation together.

I wanted to understand why I made certain choices, what keeps pulling me in new directions, and what has remained constant beneath all of it. Looking back, I can clearly see how formative my early experiences were—and how they continue to shape the work I’m making today.

Preparing this talk has been a reminder that our artistic lives rarely move in a straight line. There are detours, unexpected influences, and moments that don’t seem important until years later. It’s only in looking back that the journey begins to reveal itself.

If you'd like to join me, the talk is online this Monday, July 20, at 5:00 p.m. (Pacific). Registration is free for Center for Photographic Art members and $10 for non-members. You can register here, I hope you'll join us.