It is easy to have a nostalgic attitude toward nature; something we left behind and desire to return to, something we visit, photograph and leave.  I have come to view nature as environment, including all the spaces and systems I inhabit and because I am part of these systems, I too, am nature. It has been a gentle but powerful shift from reverence for what is outside and separate, to an acknowledgement of my role within the system. I no longer look at nature as exotic; rather I see it as everyday. It is the grass pushing through my sidewalk and it is the sidewalk and it is the person who put the sidewalk there. It is the goods I buy, the politics I set into motion, as well as the sun raising over the Cascades and setting in the Olympics.

Understory originated in Prichard Park on Bainbridge Island. The site was once a small town. Remnants of once careful yards can be seen in overgrown laurel hedges and ivy deserts creeping under the evergreens. After collecting specimens of the domestic plants and researching them I discovered that many are invasive species. Understory was a collection of the specimen samples and field notes installed under a laurel hedge on site as part of the exhibition Collocation.   The work brought up many questions: Does our desire for beauty place us in conflict with the beauty we desire? With programs like Ivy Out can we conquer the invasion we have set in motion?  Understory Inside brings the idea of desire and beauty inside and asks another question: What needs to be conquered?