In March of 2007 I lost the love of my life to Cancer after his nine-month battle with the disease. I was devastated. This portfolio began three months following his death, when I resolved myself to continue living. The initial self-portraits were created completely nude, except for clothing I had removed from his room after holding him as he took his last breath. That clothing is as sacred to me as any holy relic. Thus began the first of many rounds of self-portraits that would evolve into these prints.

Then, in July of 2008, my mother died of complications from a stroke only two months after I had visited her. My memory of that last visit is etched into my brain, as is our last phone conversation on the day before she died. These two deaths, within an eighteen month period, had a profound effect on me, just as these two individuals profoundly
affected my existence during their lives.

The use of text is bold and dominant in the initial imagery but fades, becoming flawed and less prominent with each print, much as the passage of time dulls the sharp pain of loss. My nudity is a reflection of myself laid bare to the world, as the dark clothing is my shroud. Combined with frequent allusions to beauty, these images carry a duality of light and dark, death and re-birth, evocative of both nineteenth century Romanticism and the traditional theme of Vanitas; all life is sorrowful. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, all life is fleeting.