How Connected Are You?

Everything is related to everything else, although it may not be apparent upon first glance. The same patterns repeat themselves over and over -- in nature, in textiles, in arrangements and in random moments. When I travel, I take photographs of everything that catches my eye, whether it's a flowering vine arched around a window or an arrangement of trash on the side of the road. I don't try to understand why something compels me to photograph it, I merely compile and absorb. When I arrive home, I look over my photos for styles or patterns which repeat themselves. Sooner or later, these motifs bubble to the surface and reveal themselves through my home, my wardrobe, and the way I choose to live.

For instance, I firmly believe that my many photos of beautiful women in brightly colored saris...

(Taj Mahal, 2007)

...led me to gradually over the last two years adopt a much more colorful wardrobe...

...and perhaps instigated my predilection for arranging books as though they were rows of ladies in brightly colored saris...

...and vigorously reaffirmed my love for the stripe.

Likewise, this assemblage of prayer flags fluttering in the wind...

(Potala Palace, Tibet, 2007)

...looks like a religious version of my inspiration board, which flutters in the wind (when the French doors are open) with the pinned-up talismans of my life.

From the vantage point of time, I can see that the exhilarating clash of patterns on these hand-woven Tibetan clothes... 

(Lhasa, 2007)

...probably made me fearless enough to attempt my own version at home.

And in this beautifully organized and highly colorful arrangement of grocery items in Lhasa...

(Tibet, 2007)

...I am reminded of my own living room with its own tightly-packed arrangement of books and personal objects.

Finally, this gnarled tree in Angkor Wat, entwined in a pas de deux with the ancient temple beneath it...

(Cambodia, 2007)

...reminds me of the old tree trunk I bought on sale and had topped with glass. Its branches now support some of my own ancient artifacts: a trilobyte, an ammonite and a woolly mammoth tusk.

For a moment, close your eyes and reflect upon your own unique assortment of life experiences. Now look around you. Can you make any connections to what you've seen and how you live? 

Just curious.