Artist Statement:
Fundamentally, this series is about trying to understand my connection to nature through my interactions with the myriad processes and patterns it assumes. In the images, the cultural icon of the book is juxtaposed by nature whose patterns unfold upon its open pages as well as frame them within a background that is nearly always naturally derived. The original intention of recording “nature’s acts” on the pages of a blank book was to assert my view of nature’s fundamental superiority over culture. The patterns which blanket the book through various physical and biological processes can be seen to record a natural form of knowledge—made significant by the act of placing it on a cultural symbol of human knowledge. The title of the series is intended to both invoke the reverential aesthetic from which the images are created and infer the notion of origins which the Book of Acts in the New Testament entails. As the series continues to unfold and evolve it seems fitting that the best images are usually those which depict the book literally overcome by natural process—such as the decay of cherries and the stains left by brewed tea. Here nature’s impression literally overwrites the integrity of culture.