When the Bubble Breaks

Growing up in the arid desert, water has always been a challenge.  I remember it raining so hard that my father called them "gulley washers" or "toad stranglers."  These storms saturated the earth until the creeks flooded the road and water fell over the mesa's rim.  But every abundant season seems to be followed by drought, with the sun and wind pulling moisture from the earth until it cracks.  As time continues, I see these drastic forces opposing each other more and more.

This body of work began as a playful project but as I created these images, I began to glimpse something deeper. The iridescent beauty of bubbles evokes the purity and playfulness of water, yet the colorful shadows they cast highlight the scars of the landscape—marks left by drought and erosion. These scenes serve as stark reminders of environmental degradation and loss.

These delicate and short-lived orbs embody the tension between abundance and scarcity, conservation and destruction. In their fragility, they symbolize the precarious balance of our natural resources.

Through this visual interplay of contrasts, I invite viewers to contemplate the impermanence of natural beauty and our shared responsibility for its preservation.

These images were created on my family ranch, where hauling water to fulfill basic needs has become commonplace, and Providence Canyon, Georgia—a dramatic landscape shaped by erosion from poor agricultural practices.