It was a pleasure and an honor to be selected to create the artwork for the 2017 Kentucky Arts Council's  "Governors Awards in the Arts". For the award I chose to study a southern symbol that is very familiar to all of us, the magnolia tree. I am drawn to it because of the simplicity and beauty of the blossom and it’s most interesting and unusual seed pod. I photographed it throughout the spring, summer and fall as the blossom and seed pod developed.

     For the “Governor’s Award in the Arts” each Magnolia Series assemblage is a collage of 8 to12 5”X5” square photographs layered to a depth of 1 ¾ inch.  Each of the 12 collages is a different arrangement of the photographs of the magnolia blossom. In addition to the unique arrangement of the blossom each piece has a different stage of the seed pod represented somewhere in the collage.  The collection is a study of a beautiful flower and the metaphor of transitory change.