Spiral Start #9, Diptych, 20 x 28 inches, 1995/2009.
Snail Drawings Series (1994-Present)
I have spent long seasons on Outer Cape Cod for over 25 years and a large body of my work engages with the area’s ecology. Nearly all of this work includes active collaborations with natural forces including tides, animals, deterioration, erosion and chance.
This series is based on the drawings made by snails on the wet sand in the intertidal zone. They are part of an ongoing series of works involving collaboration between the snails and me. I choreograph the snails’ starting positions, and then photograph the marks they make over time.
I tend to think of the snail pieces as a metaphor for the order we establish in our lives, and how the element of chance enters in to shape the result - regardless of how much we attempt to structure it. The works are usually in time sequences of two to four images.
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