I colored in children's coloring books with crayons, scanned the images on a flatbed scanner, and had digital c-prints made from the resultant files. When these images are enlarged, the crayon markings are easily seen and followed beneath the photographic surface. I have worked primarily with coloring books about nature, such as field guides, flowers, animals, sea monsters and Aesop's fables.
The "Fables" series was completed during an artist's residency in India. The illustrations for the coloring book were originally woodcuts that illustrated one of the first printed versions of Aesop's Fables. I became interested in Aesop's Fables because they cross cultural boundaries to tell stories about lessons, morality, personification of animals, and warnings of danger.
I photographed dioramas for the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. I explored classification of nature, how photographic images have affected how we process information and accept truth. I was also considering how we teach ourselves and children about natural impulse, death, gender and family roles.
In a pretty obsessive manner, I put these pears through a lot. I bit them, I sliced them with sharp objects, I poked into their flesh, I stiched them with surgeon's needles, and I let them decay to varying degrees. I coated them with pretty colors of nail polish to get them ready for their photographs. They're glad to be preserved in photographs, and they're glad you're looking at them.