Half Remembered Forest Night
Half Remembered Past Series
32" x 48"
When I was ten I read a haiku that has stayed with me ever since.
"Tiger, eyes dark,
With half remembered forest night
Stalks an empty cage."
As I traveled around Thailand with Veterinarians International and witnessed the current plight of captive elephants, I couldn't help but experience this void within them through their eyes.
Unseen
Half Remembered Past Series
32" x 48"
Eyes that lost their glimmer of hope, and resigned to their mechanical function. A gradual hollowing out of self and spirit due to subjugation.
Life within the Lines
Half Remembered Past Series
32" x 48"
Each composition shows only a part of the whole, constraining slivers of their stories to a frame of time in a manner similar to how their shackles restrict aspects of their existence to a frame of space.
A Skin Rich in Stories
Half Remembered Past Series
32" x 48"
In a way this is a mixed media work, as I loaded my lenses with plain glass filters that I had a thin layer of diffusive paint on, which obscures the visual field, and projects a preexisting vision onto a landscape. Treating the series with a sepia wash seemed the obvious and right direction for this nostalgic narrative.
Between The Folds
Half Remembered Past Series
32" x 48"
Their future is in our hands, and perhaps we can transport them with our compassion in the present by taking action.
Enfold Me
Half Remembered Past Series
32" x 48"
Some lines can only be imprinted by hard toil, an unforgiving captor and the slow erosion of freedom.
Resilience is Learned
Half Remembered Past Series
32" x 48"
Hurt and fear, were assimilated by her as a child, she aged that into resilience.
Arcs of my Soul
Tattered, tormented and trained. An elephant who has been taught her purpose solely by a human hand, has never known what it means to truly be elephant. Albeit she was broken in as a calf, isolated from her mother until she yielded, she has learned to relate to both her people, and others of her kind. All that she has ever known of her kind has been learned between chains.
I Am Here For You
Half Remembered Past Series
32" x 48"
Elephants are sentient, sentimental, social creatures just like us! They mourn the loss of their kith and kin, raise their young within complex families, and need contact and intimacy to feel safe, and assured.
Within a Vacant Stare
Half Remembered Past Series
32" x 48"
Stolen pauses that show us truth between the folds of their skin, within the vacant stare of their heartbroken eyes.
Quiet Reflections
Half Remembered Past Series
32" x 48"
A tusker languishes in silence, resigned to his boredom and confined movement. There is grace and elegance to their poise. An implicit beauty to their presence, and even in that sullen space a shackled soul retreats to, there is the solace of wild memories.
Friendly Forager
Half Remembered Past Series
32" x 48"
I love mixed media work, and this was the most fun I have had changing out filters in the field, and playing with depth of vision. I have to shoot the elephant twice, once without the painted filter to acquire a clean silhouette of the animal, against an intentionally obfuscated backdrop. This way they speak for themselves, leaving their context to the imagination of the viewer.
