Stuck and Unstuck

That seems to be the mantra for my life - and art - these days. Stuck is about facing frustration and opportunity, but it’s also a chance to define who you are and what really matters. These past few months, I’ve been navigating those “stuck” waters - brought on by my printer giving up the ghost just as I began printing negatives for a new body of work. Figuring out how to move forward has felt a bit like an episode of Severance: after countless turns left and right, I always seem to end up right back where I started.

Because printing negatives is so essential to my work, the dialogue between repair or replace took on a life of its own. The first saves money now but only kicks the can down the road. The second costs more now, potentially requires some retooling, but restarts the clock on my workflow system. Neither option felt easy.

One of the strange realities of working digitally is how little control we have over our tools. Our creative lives depend on hardware and software systems designed to expire - with “end-of-life” built in by the manufacturers. You find yourself creating this little island - a separate, dedicated computer that can never be updated because the new software doesn’t work with your old equipment!!! Grrrrr….

For me, part of the problem is it’s so different than the photography world I was “raised” in. With film cameras, if something new came out - a faster lens or film - that made what you already had better, not obsolete. Our professional lives once centered on mastery; now they revolve around a much broader “good enough” set of skills. Which is okay - but it’s just different and it can be hard to know when/where to draw the line.

So I made a choice about how I wanted to work. A big part of it was based on the physical space that I actually have: room for a single system - one computer that speaks to one printer. We move forward, making the best guess we can.

The above image is currently on view as part of the “Searching for Serenity” exhibition at the Sturt Haaga Gallery from November 1, 2025–January 4, 2026, 10am–4pm daily. The Gallery is at Descanso Gardens, 1418 Descanso Drive, La Cañada Flintridge, CA