V7DMJ Photograph

There’s a certain poetry in the way objects carry their past. A worn edge, a dent, a softened surface—each mark is evidence of a journey endured. We are no different. Life etches itself into us through joy, sorrow, and the quiet weight of experience. These traces don’t diminish us; they shape our depth. It is the accumulation of moments—the weathering, the stories, the burdens survived—that renders both objects and people not only more compelling, but more beautiful. This sensibility lives in the spirit of wabi-sabi, the Japanese philosophy that honors the imperfect, the impermanent, and the unpolished. It invites us to see the transient and the incomplete with reverence rather than resistance. Wabi-sabi favors authenticity over flawlessness and celebrates the natural cycles of growth and decay. Its influence flows through Japanese art, design, and daily living as a quiet acknowledgment of time’s gentle hand. In my own work, I resist titling images with words or numbers. I prefer to leave space for feeling to rise without the boundaries of language. Letting a piece speak in its own immediacy frees the viewer to meet it with their own resonance. My imagery is rooted in many places, though Oregon often runs in its veins. I begin with photography and then manipulate the image digitally to align with the vision I hold. The final form might emerge on paper, with ink or any material that suits the piece—encaustic, paint, or something unexpected. The act of creation is both discovery and reflection, a continual process of seeing what is and learning from it.