Coming home

Minnesota was my home for a long time, and I’m so happy to have my art finding its way back there. A photo from my newest body of work, Lacuna, is currently having its debut at Praxis Gallery, in a group show curated by Aline Smithson.

Minnesota was where I began making art, and growing up on its plains and under its big skies taught me what beauty was. Lest that last bit sound too grandiose, let me tell you about the first photo that I made that I remember truely loving. I was about twelve, and up early, likely because I had to catch the school bus that would soon be waiting at the end of our long drive. Heading out the door, I was stopped in my tracks by the sun rising out of the deep winter darkness and limning the edges of the hogbarns below. I grabbed my disposable camera and made a series of photos. It was a beautiful morning.

Those photos are still in my mind’s eye, and that experience is still tied to how and why I make art. I think beauty is an exquisite and intrinsic thusness that exists independent of the observer. When we come into contact with it, we are moved. We are reminded that we are not alone, and that we are in fact a part of it. We, too, are beautiful.

Did 12-year-old me believe this? I wish I could say that she did, but no. But I guarantee that she walked down that long gravel lane happier than she would have been otherwise. That, too, is beautiful.