A minister who I greatly respect once said, during a sermon, “Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space lies our freedom and power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our happiness.” Within this space I am challenged to consider the reality to which I subscribe. The concept of being able to choose one's response to the events in one's life plays a crucial role in my work.

My work focuses on revealing this “invisible” space between two distinct images, which becomes a connection and a metaphor for the metaphysical passageway between stimulus and response. For example, in The Space II the image of nails and red paint on the wall is painful and sad while the roses represent beautiful results on the opposite side of the wall. While one side of the image goes through the space like a white cocoon following red thread, the image changes.

The concept of duality also plays out in my work. Two things that seem diametrically opposed can not be separated from one another. Like the two sides of a coin, they exist together. In Alchemy I, I use nails to represent difficulty, but from the viewer's perspective, reflected lights on the end of the nails make the nails look like beautiful stars or a city at night.

The cocoon itself represents the shape of the empty space between stimulus and response. If people choose a positive response from the stimulus, they can change and grow like a caterpillar transforms into a butterfly. When a caterpillar is to be a butterfly, the cocoon is an essential process. The process of metamorphosis transforms the nails from cocoon to butterfly. Transformation is the alchemy, magic and mystery of my work