ARTIST STATEMENT: Photography is a visual language. For me, it is a tool that informs an expression. It is intuitive and intimate while politically and culturally contextualized. In my creative work I am compelled to pursue an emotional and political landscape that inspires dialogue between global communities and between the present moment and ancient places. It is about building connection and is informed by being a femme queer, my experience of living and traveling about the world and the ways I experience privilege and the ways I do not. I focus on identity, gender, sexual orientation, race, class, ethnicity, culture, nature, social justice, and community that builds bridges between an experience and understanding of what we know and may not know and creates a possibility for further compassion through witnessing. The photographs I have not taken are as significant as the ones I have. I am drawn to collaborative work with other artists or with community to communicate a vision.