Century Plant - 2022
Reflections on Solitude and Nature
I love the mountains, but did the mountains love me back
I went through the highest highs and the lowest lows of my life in the southwest, exploring myself and my surroundings. Living near the mountains was a dream for me while growing up in the Midwest. I ran away to Oregon as a rebellious teen and got my first taste of mountain country living in the valley below the Siskiyou for six months culminating with a hitchhiking trip along the coast of Oregon and northern California. Twenty years later I found myself in southern New Mexico living at the foot of the Organ mountains.
Yellow Saguaro - 2024
Desert Spoon- 2024
I wasn’t inexperienced. I love walking on my own, wandering, exploring. Getting lost, stalked by cougars, falling at a cliff's edge, running out of water in a land without it. None of this was dissuasive. It was training for the boy who grew up in the city. I kept going back, with more water, a big knife, and a growing awareness. I followed the path of the mule deer, the coyotes, javelinas and climbed every accessible peak around the Soledad valley in the Organ Mountains. The cows wandered up to mountain tops. Higher than you would ever expect.
Pink Saguaro - 2024
Yucca Desert Collage - 2025
Slot Canyon - 2023
It was the isolation that finally got to me, sometimes spending days not speaking to a soul. Making plans to be in nature instead of connecting with people. At times it was as if I forgot how to function in society, how to communicate. I would return to work after a weekend in the deep woods and have to slowly integrate back into normal conversations and a demanding job. I was transforming, slipping away, my obligation was to the mountains.
Desert Erosion - 2024
Agave Americana - 2024
The pull to the mountains is still with me, but my relationship with them has changed. I needed to put an end to it so I could begin to reflect on myself… and return to the herd. After this divergence of character, I understand more about this persona, within me, that craves a life that is simpler, detached, alone. A wanderer on the trails of the deer with nowhere to be except in the present immersed in isolation.
Ocotillo - 2024
Barrel Cactus - 2025
After thousands of miles hiked through New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas.. I studied plants, wildlife, land and my own internal landscape. consciousness. I created a version of myself through various phases. I'm aware of the human history; the ecology and terrain.
I may belong more to that place now that I am gone, more than when I was living there. It is an inseparable part of me now that I’m gone. Part of my identity.
It felt like failing, choosing to leave. But now it doesn’t. It was a means to finish another long term project. My research was done. It was time to review and sort through the data.
Agave Parryi- 2022
Blue Saguaro - 2021
Ocotillo with Yucca Roots - 2021
Desert Colors - 2024
