My collages celebrate nature's rich diversity with images of gardens, birds, landscapes, trees, floral arrangements, seas and aquatic environments while my articles reflect on natural history, human culture, and our relationship with nature.
Collage surfaces are enlivened with a variety of papers and mine are created with stamps that I have carved.
Book and DVD Recommendations
The BBC''s series Earth: One Planet, Many Lives hosted by Chris Peckham is an account of the incredible changes to our planet over its long history. It also reveals not only how geology has affected the planet's living inhabitants but also how those lives have influenced the Earth itself.
A DVD from PBS, Evolution Earth, has an upbeat perspective about how some animals are coping in a changing world. The episodes focus on islands, heat, ice, grasslands, and the earth itself.
Dust: The Modern World in a Trillion Particles was written by Jay Owens and published by Abrams Press in 2023. Dust is far-ranging, not only in the areas around the globe visited by the author but also in her fascinating account of the varieties of dust. Her explorations of mineral dust, atomic dust in the air and soil, and the cosmic dust from colliding comets and asteroids will erase any notion that dust is a mundane subject.
Smithsonian Flora: Inside the Secret World of Plants published by DK Publishing in 2018 is filled with beautiful, detailed photos and covers a wide variety of topics in an entertaining and accessible style.
Flower: Exploring the World in Bloom published by Phaidon in 2020 is diverse and lush collection of flower images. Each image is allotted its own page with a short explanatory background below it. A colorful array of flower paintings, photographs, drawings, prints, lithographs and engravings that have been created by artists with a wide range of imaginative approaches over the centuries create an unexpected mix.
Designa: Technical Secrets of the Traditional Visual Arts published by Bloomsbury in 2014 presents an extensive selection of designs. The topics include Celtic pattern, Islamic design, curves, perspective, symmetry, and the Golden Section. Diverse and beautifully rendered illustrations fill the pages of this book.
Japanese Color Harmony Dictionary: Traditional Colors of Japan by Teruko Sakurai published by Tuttle Publishing in 2018. A lovely book of color combinations, patterns, illustrations, designs, and photos based on traditional Japanese colors. Brief descriptions of festivals, places, artists, and seasons associated with different color combinations are included as well.
Post-Impressionism: The Beginnings of Modern Art with Ricky Allman as the lecturer for this Great Courses series produced in 2023 by the Learning Company. Ricky Allman does an excellent job presenting this DVD series about the artists and groups in the post-impressionist movement. He highlights different artists to illustrate the varying styles adopted during this period and shows how advances in science and technology, as well as societal, political, and philosophical changes affected them.
The Garden Visitor's Companion by Louisa Jones published by Thames and Hudson in 2009. The author poses questions to help visitors gain a deeper understanding and appreciation of the gardens they visit, and she features many outstanding gardens from around the world. The book is structured around ten questions about each of the ten styles of gardens she has chosen: historic, cottage, collector's and botanical, kitchen, outdoor art, naturalistic, home, Mediterranean, Japanese, and modernist. She also includes the favorite gardens of experts and advice about open gardens for both visitors and owners.