ARTIST STATEMENT

"LaRue," a name given to the eldest girl of each generation in my family, means beside the pathway.

This idea has always been the core of my creative work. The unknown journey of my characters, their purpose, and destination evokes visions of a pathway. Their identities are unknown, their origins are unclear, and their destinations are unseen; yet each of them is depicted along a pathway to something new.  The images I take is only a glimpse of their journey, a mere snapshot of a lifetime collecting fairies, drawing swords, or discovering magic in the heart of the woods.

The vagueness of their narratives, combined with the natural settings they inhabit, creates an aura of timelessness in each scene as if each character might possibly exist simultaneously in both the present and the past. My works only give a glimpse of the story but its ending remains open. The fate of these characters is unknown, undoing the typical mythical ending. They could live happily ever after, remain wandering in the woods in isolation or have a different end. No one knows what is to become of them. 

These figures in my scenes are represented in ways that enhance their feminiity, yet they also resist becoming mere ‘damsels in distress.’. The actions, the facial expressions, and the absence of the standard male savior allow the figures in my works to defy traditional notions of femininity and craft a more complex image of womanhood where femininity co-exists with strength and control.  

I see my works as an unfinished tapestry of another world that I am creating and refining through every capture, every venture into the woods, and every final image; it is an ongoing process that is constantly revealing more depth and dimension to "LaRue."