
Vinyl Vista
44 x 55 inches
Rio Grande: Burnt Water / Agua Quemada (2002-2008)
The Rio Grande is a key site of the confluence and divergence of cultures of the United States and Mexico. As the river runs its course, it traverses managed recreational forests, agricultural land, Pueblo and Navaho Nations, and densely populated urban areas around the maquiladores of northern Mexico. My project addresses this cultural landscape, which consists of an ever more complex relationship between the natural environment and human agency.
Between 2002 and 2008, I photographed along the Rio Grande River as it flows from Colorado to the Gulf of Mexico. I worked by projecting photographic images of the Rio Grande landscape onto assemblages of natural history specimens and cultural artifacts that I collected. Prickly pear plants, cornhusks, soil, clothing, vinyl car seats, needles, and other objects were incorporated into still lives that invoke the complexity of human experiences along the river as well as the immediacy of history within this landscape. The still lives, illuminated by the projected imagery, were then rephotographed using a view camera to produce a landscape that, through its artifacts, refers to a water and land environment being reconfigured by a host of critical issues including water politics, immigration, and economic inequities.

Borderlands
44 x 55 inches

Torrey Yucca
43 x 55 inches

Big Bend
35 x 50 inches

Commodity Futures
44 x 55 inches

Ground Water
47 x 40 inches

Thistles
El Paso - Ciudad Juárez

Wild Plum
40 x 52 inches

Santa Ana Notebook
25 x 50 inches

Palm
40 x 50 inches


Spring Storm
44 x 55 inches

Mantis
44 x 44 inches

River Delta
38 x 66 inches

Cumulus
40 x 57 inches
Rope Swing
55 x 44 inches

Wind, New Mexico
40x 50 inches

Sally's Run Off
32 x 50 inches

Setback
44 x 55 inches

Glyph
55 x 44 inches

Windswept
40 x 40 inches

Prickly Pear
55 x 44 inches

Downpour
44 x 55 inches

Coral Vine
47 x 40 inches

King Plants
44 x 55 inches