In 2016, I  curated and produced the Bold Beauty Project; a powerful visual arts exhibit that featured women with varying disabilities. The  exhibition provided a platform for women with disabilities to disrupt and redefine their beauty through photography and narrative expression.  Through the photographers’ creative lens and the women’s personal stories, the concept of who and what is beautiful was challenged.  The process created transformative experiences for the participants and new visions of beauty for the viewers.  The exhibit was hung at the Bakehouse in Miami, Florida and then traveled on to Art Basel and Art Palm Beach.

The photo shown here is of Cynthia soon after losing her leg in a motorcycle accident.  She wanted to be photographed holding the helmet and jacket she had on when the accident happened.  I wanted to capture her fierce strength in this image. For more information, please visit www.boldbeautyproject.com

  In 2017, I was inspired to create this exhibit featuring formerly incarcerated women and their stories after my experience volunteering in the women's prison in Homestead, Florida.  The exhibit was made with the intention of shifting societal prejudices about women who have been incarcerated and with the aim to improve post incarceration support.  Collectively, we have reached a time in our nation where the issues surrounding women, incarceration, voting rights, reentry into the community and social justice can no longer be ignored.  The exhibition comprised of 25 large scale portraits and written narratives of and by the subjects, an art film, recorded interviews and an interactive app. The works featured  talented photographers, including internationally renowned Maggie Steber and Donato Di Camillo.   The exhibition debuted and had a four-month run at the Coral Gables Museum from June, 2019-September, 2019.

By design, 80 percent of the photographers are women. The assets of the exhibition include a powerfully emotional five-minute black and white art film with soundtrack professionally shot with the RED Monochrome in 8k and a robust app with educational guides and actions for change. Lastly, transmitter beacons imbedded in seven of the portraits allow visitors to hear the women speak in their own words in 3-5 minute personal statements and listened to on cell phones through the app. 

The images below are the six portraits I made for the exhibit were all made in collaboration with the subjects.  To see all 25 images and for more information, please visit www.thecompassionprojectmiami.com

(Click on images to view full size.) 

 This collection of images started as a pandemic photographic project  in early 2020 using family talismans, vintage photos, my own body and natural treasures discovered on dog walks. The pandemic lockdown and isolation resurrected feelings I had long buried and had begun to surface.  This photographic exercise became a way for me to acknowledge and process these feelings of loneliness and anxiety. 

These small still lifes resemble lab studies and were shot on my marble coffee table.  Thematically featuring gardenias, a symbol of mother for me,  along with the resurrection fern in both their newly blooming and then fading and dying forms represent my attachment to the past.  The images’ pleasing color palette, indicative of my own “pleasing” outward countenance, and doesn’t reveal my whole truth. 

This latest project is an ongoing exploration of identity in the LGBTQIA+ community in Western North Carolina.  The images featured here were made of subjects participating in an oral history archive.  Again, images were made in collaboration with the subjects and they are represented as they wished to be seen.

These subjects have meaningful roles in the community often serving to help others and fight for equal rights.