4/30/2019

     I’ve spent the last year exploring different parts of the desert southwest whenever I have had the time. Between quick weekend missions and weeklong wanderings to all sorts of different areas, I have hiked through its canyons, explored its many washes, communed with special trees, and admired the endless layers of colorful badlands. The desert is a place where you can find solitude, silence, and most uniquely, space. Looking out from a high mesa, the landscape expands in every direction, as far as the eye can see, sometimes without a single tree, plant, or other life form in sight. I believe the Earth has these vast expanses of emptiness, in order to create a counterbalance, compensating for the dense populations of life we find elsewhere.

     Space is something I feel we still do not quite comprehend, like the number zero, or the concept of nothing, especially in the western world. But soon enough, once we run out of it, with our sprawling urban cities and agriculture, we will then recognize the value of what we had. The value of nothingness. Places where one can feel great openness, freedom, and room to move around and breathe in are becoming more and more scarce. Hopefully we can realize the value of nothingness before its too late, and we can preserve these places as havens of the space which they allow us to experience. A world without emptiness is not a place I would like to live in. Space, stillness, and silence are precious.

     Like many past galleries, I created these images alongside my wonderful family or close friends, seeking an escape from the buzzing, humdrum life near the city. But for most of the time I spent creating these images, I was enjoying the company of myself. Sitting, admiring, and observing in silence, the incredible creations of Mother Earth. I hope you enjoy this gallery, Land Of Solace: Part 1, and you too can feel the powerful serenity and calmness one experiences by being alone in these arid and spiritual landscapes. Let’s all try harder to educate the world on the value of space, emptiness, silence, stillness, and nothingness, before it’s all gone.

Click Here To See Land Of Solace: Part 1