Mounds: artist statement

Discovered • Uncovered • Recovered

I began photographing burial mounds about the same time I was going through a divorce.  I was drawn to the visual bump in the landscape and I sought out the feelings of peace and mystery in their sacred spaces.  Learning about the civilizations such as the Hopewell people who built the mounds was much more interesting than focusing on the issues in my own life.  Many of the mounds were discovered by farmers or early archeologists and were often uncovered, altered, pilfered, and then recovered.  Others were simply destroyed.  I wanted to know why these ancient mounds were not part of the history taught in grammar school text books and why were they not protected.

I feel a connection with the ancient cultures and the mounds to have had a sacred space altered and patched back together again.  The process of divorce was the same for me.  Life moves forward and although recovered, some scars remain, covered and buried beneath a mound of hope.