Fletcher's Folly

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The word mandala is from the Sanskrit word which is loosely translated as circle. Traditional mandala design often utilizes the circle�symbol of the cosmos�and the square�symbol of the man-made world. Mandalas generally exhibit a center, radial symmetry, and the major points of the compass: North, South, East, West. The mandala represents wholeness and can be seen as a model for life itself. It reminds me of the infinite possibilities in life, the world that extends from both within and without our being.
My mandalas are created on the computer from my photographs and from various digital �painting� techniques. They are an attempt to demystify the contradictions in contemporary society and the desire to show the �oneness� of the would that we live in.

********** Ohio Street Fence - Abstracts
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There is a fence on Ohio Street off of Harbor Way, in Richmond, that I love to photograph. It has been painted many times over the years and has weathered very beautifully. There is so much going on on that fence that I have had to go back over and over again to take photographs of it. Not only do I discover new elements that were there that I didn�t see before, I also realize that I am seeing more and more totally new forms and ideas that the weather has created since my last visit. I want my abstract photographs to represent living, changing forms, forms that could be seen in nature or society just as easily as on a fence in Richmond.

********** Blossoms and Thorns

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Miraflores is the name given to a cluster of former nurseries owned and operated by Japanese-American families from the early 20th Century until 2006 when the property was acquired by the Richmond Community Redevelopment Agency for housing development. The property is located near I-80 close to the new Target store. It is the last vestige of a once-thriving industry that spread along the Richmond-El Cerrito border.

The former Sakai, Oishi and Maida-Endo nurseries are historically significant. These properties are the only extant cut-flower nurseries begun by Japanese-Americans before WW II in the entire Bay Area as well as the last remaining of Richmond�s community of Japanese American flower growers. The properties are rare surviving Bay Area nurseries, a once prominent industry in the core Bay Area counties that has been almost entirely displaced by development pressures during the last thirty years.

These photographs represent a return to nature for me, a testament to the power of the natural forces that surround us. What looks at first glance like nature in disarray is actually nature going back to a native state. As we see the man-made structures disintegrate and the domesticated plant life become wild we see the powerful forces of nature at work.

Carnaval San Francisco 2007

SF Scenery Composite

Anti-War Demonstration
What is War Good For

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