My art is inspired by a freedom to play that I didn’t know as a child stifled by abuse. Architectural lines may seem as unforgiving as the bars of a prison on mind, body, and soul. However, in finding a different vantage from which to view or a different light to shed on the architecture, my works demonstrate that whatever the circumstance the human spirit, by God’s grace, may ever arise in inspiration, creativity, and life.

My adulthood play is enlivened by Julia Margaret Cameron’s pioneering, Danica O. Kus’ perspective, and Julia Anna Gospodarou’s impactful monochromes. There are so few female black and white architectural photographers that a Google search begs the question, do you mean men. However, through play and example, I find my own way through monochrome documentary and abstract architectural photographs with distinctive textures, tones, and perspectives.

Recently, I realized my attention to fine detail and the varying tones in black and white images began in my teenage hobby of sketching. Using #2 pencil and varying degrees of erasure and finger brushes and rubs and intensities of graphite edge, I sharpened my monochromatic ability “seeing” color in shades of grey. Drawing from the color image of a full-sailed schooner ship at sea calls for special focus to the nuances of depth, texture, contrast, shadow, and light and how to bring it into another life using only a pencil.

I bring that same focus to bear on every pixel of monochromatic photography, minutely going over both my documentary and architectural fine art pieces to develop my tenants of rich tonality, vivid texture, and creative perspective. Sometimes, imagining depicting the image from the point of a pencil aids my endeavor so even white has hues.