This series of 45 photomontages comprise a narrative inspired by the magic realism fiction of Native American writers, including Louise Erdrich. In these stories, dreams and strange events wind through, carrying as much weight as things that “really happen.”
I grew up in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, the capital of the Cherokee Indian Nation, surrounded by a rich American Indian culture.
I am using the strategies of these writers to transform a realistic setting into one that is quietly magical. I am giving visual form to that which is unseeable through the use of lighting effects, symbolically imbued objects and creatures. In the Native American tradition, there are fluid boundaries between the material and spiritual realms, and between animals and human beings. There is a constant slippage between the boundaries of the natural and the supernatural. Time is not linear, but rather circular with the use of flashbacks, digressions and interwoven dreams. Lore, myth and legends are laid down over the apparent reality. Birds, the source of many legends and thought to serve as messengers between humans and the spirit world, are an interwoven thread.
The story is open-ended in keeping with the tradition of oral storytelling.
