Wildflower Prayers Series

Wildflowers Group 1     Wildflowers Group 2      Wildflowers Group 3       Wildflowers Group 4 Wildflowers Group 5

Note: Please visit each of the 6 pages of wildflowers. The plants are placed into groupings depending on the general order in which they were made over the years. Group 1 plants were the first ones that I photographed and turned into photoconstructions; Group 6 were done several years later, and Group 7, the last set, still needs to be uploaded on the website.

This series features over 190 different wildflowers, shrubs, and other plants that I have encountered as I walked in the hills and along the river on my family’s property. The land has a diverse terrain, with grassland intersected by deep draws, a wooded river bottom, and a large vegetated sandbar in the Missouri River. Some plants prefer the shade of the woods, but others thrive in the full sun in the hills or along the gravel road that passes through the property. It’s an adventure to discover both familiar and new plants as I walk through these areas.

Through direct experience and research, I am learning about the variety of plants that live here, as well as their biology, cultural history and relationships to the larger ecosystem. I am fascinated by their stages of growth, bloom and decay over the seasons. Adapting to a tough environment, they are battered by wind and rain, blasted by the sun, trampled on by cows and chewed on by insects. Birds thrive on their seeds, and bees flourish on their pollen. Each plant is in a constant cycle of transformation.

Although scientific and cultural knowledge deepens my understanding of the plants, my greatest delight is in learning to really see plants and to appreciate their diverse and complex colors, shapes and textures. My primary goal is artistic. I hope to create a dramatic portrait of each plant that celebrates their beauty, strength and fragility. Each flower—even the weeds—encourages a sense of awe and wonder at the complexity and diversity of the natural world.

Artistic Process

I photograph the plants when I am out walking, and then on my computer I remove unwanted areas around the plants, refine qualities such as contrast and sharpness, and layer the remaining images on photographs I have taken of the sky, usually on other days. I call these works “photoconstructions.”

It is a time-consuming, exploratory process. Each plant presents different artistic challenges as I work to make compositions that combine the details of photography with the expressiveness of painting. When I am finished, I put a border around each composition to add visual tension and to complement the colors of the image.