“BREATHLESS”, my current series of woodcuts and linocuts refers back to my years of birding in the Virginia woods and on the North Carolina coast. Pollution, habitat loss and climate change have had dramatic impacts on bird populations since I first began exploring the coastal shores and wetlands with my close friend and colleague Rinda Metz almost 50 years ago. I have since lost my friend to cancer and have seen bird populations dwindle. But I have never lost my sense of wonder at the brilliance of an Oriole, the elegance of a heron or the resonant song of a wood thrush. It is that confluence of loss, wonder and foreboding that I seek to capture in the rawness and immediacy of these relief prints.

Like much of my work on paper, the images combine biomorphic forms with architectural elements and text fragments. They explore the intersection of the natural world with the human-made environment. The text elements in the pieces operate as keywords, meditations, or mantras; they acknowledge the ever present inner voice that is never completely silenced by the creative process, as well as the pervasive presence of human culture in every aspect of the natural world from the microscopic to the global.

The two- to four-color images in the “BREATHLESS” series have been hand printed in small editions ranging from 7 to 10 prints.