When I began this series I was still interested in changing the shape of my work and getting away from the traditional idea of rectangular artwork. At the same time, I was fascinated by the idea of windows, bring the outdoors in, and creating pieces that would be personal meditative devices for my viewers, no matter what environment they inhabited. In part this format was essential to my work because it gave me the freedom to shape my work and push the borders of stretched canvas. I was able to branch out of the frame and move my pieces beyond the conventional.

However, it was the spiritual connection I felt to the Japanese scrolls and screens on display at the Walters Art Museum that sparked my desire to create a series of wall hangings. Just the simple act of removing these pieces from a frame made them feel precious, special, and almost sacred.

Presenting my pieces in this handmade manner helps to deepen the meditative aspect of the work. It brings my art out of the realm of the factory-made canvases and frames, taking away the machine-made perfection that is expected from such presentation. This helps viewer form a personal connection to the subject, and hopefully to nature itself.

These pieces are subjects I discovered on meditative walks in the Catoctin Mountains, a place I hiked often as both a child and an adult. Each place that I have chosen to paint stirred something in my soul and made me stop to take in its beauty. My hope is to inspire the viewer to feel the same reverence I felt while looking at the scrolls in the museum's collection and at the inspiring landscape.

I believe that creating these connections is essential in a culture where economic forces threaten our planet and in a society that grows further and further from nature with every generation.