Literally “dead nature”- the French Impressionist’s term for still life. When I moved to Colorado from the East Coast, I became aware of how much surviving Rock Art and Ruins of the Old Ones there were in my new home range. I began to travel the desert and mountain West to search out and photograph these haunting places. After the famous major sites, like Mesa Verde and Chaco, I began to search out smaller and lesser known sites. Off trail hiking and scrambling in search of perhaps an undiscovered site, I began to find the bones of many wild animals. These bones exerted a strange power over me, calling out to be seen, noticed, honored. I tried photographing them on-site but was disappointed by the results. Lost in a welter of pine needles and stones, the images did not have the power they showed me. I began to take them back to my studio where I could have complete control of composition and light. Afterwards, I return them to their place in the wilderness. From this beginning came the Nature Morte series.