FEATHER COLLECTION ~ XVI

I tend to approach new things with a sense of adventure and a playful attitude. I can still remember giggling and cursing as my ex-fiancee, and I desperately tried not to spill cyanotype chemicals all over our sleeping bags. We were living our tent, and I was so paranoid about accidentally exposing the chemicals while the paper dried. So there we were in the middle of night coating watercolor paper to expose the next working.

As awkward as it was, I can’t help but smile at that girl in the woods trying to make art and see where the process takes her. In those days it wasn’t about perfection; I wanted to create something for the sake of creation. I made a lot of mistakes, some I kept. 

But my willingness to explore the process, and just give it a try. I didn’t care if it was the right way, as long I loved the results. This collection is a celebration of that process, that willingness to accept the failures, the imperfections, and beauty in the creating. 

Over the years, I keep growing, learning, and experimenting these pieces are a product of that journey; an expression of my experimentation with the art of imperfection. 

For as long as I can remember, I have been wandering, searching, seeking, and exploring. I have found a strange kind of magic when one allows themselves to explore, wander aimlessly, and embrace the unknown. Over the years, I have traveled many paths and wandered amongst thousands of trees; this collection is the culmination of my wanderings. 

These images are more than just photographs; they are my memories, the moments in-between, and each one tells a story of the many paths I have taken. I hope you will enjoy them as much as I have enjoyed discovering them.

A Walk Through the Garden was created during one of my earliest creative periods, and shortly after returning from a crazy 16-week adventure in the mountains of Ojai, Ca.

These pieces are small reminders that even amongst the modern-day world filled with cars, and endless sidewalks if I looked close enough, I could find a bit of magic, a small dose of wonder and a moment to reconnect with the underpinnings of the world. 

Many of these pieces were pulled from my very own garden or the garden of someone I knew, and sometimes I would find them in my morning strolls through the city.  Collecting and creating these pieces helped me re-assimilate to living in the city, and living within four walls it helped me find balance at a time when I was drowning in the mundane trying to readjust to life within in city and far far away from that tent in the woods.

I hope you will enjoy these pieces, and I hope the will serve a reminder that there is more to life then meets the eye, and there is nature all around us, even if we find ourselves in a concrete jungle. 

Several years ago, I set off and on an adventure with someone I truly loved. The plan was simple; spend the next 16 weeks camping and living out of our car in a crazy attempt to complete my final semester of college. The idea worked. Along the way, I meet these two amazing humans who had made a life out of living out of their van and were working with local grocery chains to feed the homeless in LA. I didn’t know it then, but these two beautiful souls, John & Nikki,  would change me.

I can still remember listening to John as he told me all about his crazy collection of feathers and why he was creating an altar in the woods to give them back to the universe. I remember how he told me how the world wants us to succeed, and even though it can’t pay us or provide us with modern things. It will often gift with tiny trinkets of affection, small things a shiny pebble that makes you smile or think of dragons, or a simple feather to remind of your brilliance. I remember thinking that it sounded so childlike, so innocent, and a small part of me wanted to believe. I wanted to believe in magic, and that universe truly cares for us. But as any modern young woman, I was skeptical. 

Magic, the universe gifting us present, showing us affection in weird gifts and coincidences.  The world doesn’t work that way. Or does it. 

During this conversation, I had decided to document the alter and take about a dozen or so photographs. On the day I wrote to John and Nikki to share these photos with them. Something happened, and maybe it all just circumstantial, a coincidence, but there I was standing in the woods, and as I picked up my phone to send a text to my new friends, a small grey feather landed on my head, as if by magic. 

I have been finding feathers ever since, on my darkest days, falling into my sketchbook as I flush out new ideas, hidden in my car, and I can’t help but believe that the universe is sending me presents. Small reminders that I am loved, I am cherished, I am special. 

These prints are my reminders that someone or something cares for me. Call it what you want, but I choose to believe in magic, and if you find yourself needing a reminder that magic exists and you are unique and valuable. Here’s a feather from my collection to yours.