SAFE HARBOR
2019
resin, photographic print, pine, collage -- 9” x 6” x .25”
About the piece:
Safe Harbor was inspired by a trip to Niagara Falls during a moment of considerable change in my personal and professional life. At the international border between Canada and the United States, underneath the checkpoint’s sharp, spiky canopy of razor wire, the enormously powerful forces of nature raged just below. I was struck by the stark contrast between man-made borders forged out of metal and nature’s powerful ability to refuse any attempt at mastery. All humans can do in the face of such overwhelming forces is to prepare for the inevitable, even when control remains well outside our capacity. In this moment, I was reminded that one finds true peace only within the eye of the storm, that the only way out is through, and that “going with the flow” affords a relaxation of needless tension. Even amidst the crashing waves we cannot control, we must recognize the inevitability of change for the gift the storm offers—a safe harbor.
I created Safe Harbor with a collage technique that combines photographs of waves breaking as they crash into one another, depicted from different angles and at different points of intensity, creating an entirely new—and contradictory—image as the composition’s central element. The base photographs, depicting a waterfall in motion, were selected for their individual ability to reflect the unmistakable force of water’s elemental power in constant flow and infinite motion. I juxtaposed these images to create a marble rose carved on a stone tablet, evocative of permanence and hardness, the eternal tension between stasis and evolution.
I created Safe Harbor with a collage technique that combines photographs of waves breaking as they crash into one another, depicted from different angles and at different points of intensity, creating an entirely new—and contradictory—image as the composition’s central element. The base photographs, depicting a waterfall in motion, were selected for their individual ability to reflect the unmistakable force of water’s elemental power in constant flow and infinite motion. I juxtaposed these images to create a marble rose carved on a stone tablet, evocative of permanence and hardness, the eternal tension between stasis and evolution.
