On Music (2021-present)

These photo composites bring together two forms of expression close to my heart: photography and classical music. I place photographs over musical scores, allowing the printed notes, words, and images to share a single space. Many of the pieces use Schubert Lieder—songs set to German Romantic poetry that evoke a strong sense of place. Two others use music from Aaron Copland’s Our Town, whose sense of memory and nostalgia echoes Thornton Wilder’s play. For each work, I chose a photograph that expresses something I feel in the music, story, or poem. I was also inspired by seeing Plains Native ledger art, in which artists drew on pages that already carried writing and marks. My composites draw on that idea of an image sharing space with an existing document; they are my own response to the music rather than works in the ledger art tradition.