Grand Canyon Family

While working as a marketing coordinator in a health-care center for over 10 years, I became intrigued with all the x-rays I saw during my career, depicting various states of the human skeletal system.  As an artist, I was fascinated by being able to see the inner workings and sculptural forms of the human body and I envisioned a way to incorporate them into my artwork. These x-rays, to me, truly represent the spiritual and scientific wonders of nature and the human body. This led me to create the X-Rayted series, which I began in early 2010 and continue to expand on currently. The content consists of photographic collages of human X-rays (I found a way to photograph the actual x-rays and retain the transparent look of the images) incorporated with Victorian woodcut etchings of insects, plant life and other subjects. These are juxtaposed with original nature images and photos I shot of cemetery and funerary statuary from across the US & Europe and sometimes incorporated into watercolor paintings with collage. I am also working on new pieces utilizing photos I took of animal bones, feathers and shells (all naturally found objects!). By doing this I can represent the underlying connection between all forms of nature and how life and death are so closely intertwined.  There is a universal connection between all life forms; the microcosm reflects the macrocosm. By utilizing current as well as historical imagery, the symbolism in my photographic collages adds a sense of history, time and place to the pieces.  The photographs of human X-rays collaged with the other components detail our existence on earth and how it is both finite and infinite at the same time. I also enjoy the connection between the organic shapes of the human bones along with those of the other natural components in the pieces. This portrays the connectedness amongst human beings with other life forms on Earth.