In 2015 I had a residency at Anchor Graphics at Columbia College Chicago.

I am interested in how an impression of place can be translated into a visual experience. Residencies are important to my work as I contemplate the way the landscape of my childhood conditions how I approach the world as an adult. My work is not an attempt to answer a question about this relationship, but rather to ruminate on my understanding of place, landscape, and space, each with its own punctuations, patterns, and order. Leaving familiar territory is helpful toward this goal.

The sight of Lake Michigan has always struck me because it is so reminiscent of parts of the San Francisco Bay. A residency in Chicago gave me time to investigate this recognizable yet foreign place. Each morning, on foot, I explored a different area where the lake met the city. No transition was the same; sometimes the water met concrete, which in turn met railroad tracks, then a park, and then urban hubbub. In other places the water extended into a beach, or was held in by a steel wall. With each walk, I took in not only the serene sight of the lake and its seeming endlessness, but also the activity, angularity, and visual contradictions of the city. The imagery that I initiated at Anchor Graphics was a contemplation of the varied relationships and transitions between water and urban architecture.