Open

Open, in collaboration with Tom O’Reilly, 2024
For the benefit of Friends of Huế Foundation Children's Shelter, Huế, Việt Nam
Hand embroidery on photographic print on canvas, 36 x 48”

Dedicated to Jenny and the children she loved

Taken while lying on his back in the canyon of the Virgin River in Zion National Park (2022), Tom O’Reilly’s photograph emanates a stillness that can be seen, heard, and felt. Once a rushing river, it now offered–for a season–a place to rest and calm the spirit. Hand-embroidered words suspend quietly beneath a great, yawning aperture as we look to the natural world to revive us. 

Open air describes the vast inspiration that can be found in intimate spaces wherein we can draw in deep, full breaths that nourish our bodies and spirit, so that we might be prepared to offer this same nourishment to others. Open heart describes the positioning of our hearts toward the desire to live in a manner that serves the betterment of humanity.

This work considers the upward direction of the gaze, the forward posturing of the heart, and the point where these two gestures align to meet the needs of the ones who seek stillness and hope. Light peeks from the contour of earth to meet us right where we are.