This new body of work is titled Sana [ Heal ] Body and Land. What is the connection between our own health and the health of the land around us? Can we have such huge shifts in the wellness of the Great Salt Lake and not expect it to also effect the quality of our own lives? As stewards of the land we call home this work seeks to explore the connection between dramatic shifts in the landscape and our shared human experiences.
In 2020 I started consistently walking the shores of The Great Salt Lake in Utah. My camera lens sometimes capturing the vastness of landscape, while other times I focus in on objects, remnants and artifacts. The lake seemed to hold so many secrets and with no science background I realized that I needed to read as much as I could as well as reach out to scientists who were on the front lines of researching this diverse ecosystem. I reached out to The Great Salt Lake Institute and was fortunate enough to shadow them in the field on several trips. Once this body of work is complete I will be looking for a venue to exhibit.
2023
The work directly above is titled “Memory Remains” and was shown at the Sarajevo Winter Arts Festival in Bosnia in February 2023. As I walk the edges of the lake over the next year, gathering what imagery I can—I feel I am also bearing witness to the dramatic shift in the Great Salt Lake. Each discarded or decayed item I come across reminds me of cells in our own bodies that, when diseased, morph and become something else, something harmful. It is hard to imagine that this drying lake was in the heart of what once was called Lake Bonneville which measured nearly 1000 feet deep and 20,000 square miles wide.