What I mean with these pictures is like this: in individual consciousness, on a day-to-day basis, what is subtle and non-catastrophic about nature has a tough time competing with the various finely-honed distractions (pink cakes, diamond teeth, crotchless leopard-print panties) we cook up as a culture. So, earth tone, small things, gradual change, receptivity to decay- all these are hard to turn one's attention to when culture provides so much which is turned up to 11. The same problem goes for: what is non-dramatic in relationships among people.

It seems to me we'll pay attention to the natural environment when it's clubbing us over the head either with beauty or with disaster, but often not otherwise.

When I was a nun, I spent half a year meditating on boredom, ie: intentionally focussing my attention on seemingly uneventful experience, both present and remembered. At first (post-Yale, post-pan-Asian-travel), it felt like death, but then I adjusted. So the current work combines specific attention to nature & assorted distractions (the voids & other layers), living together in physical landscapes, as they do in mental ones, for better or for worse.

For more on the Animal Voids, click here.