Shipping ports have been the central subject of my artwork since the early 2000s. It was then that I first noticed the Oakland shipping port as a backdrop to the San Francisco Bay Area and started thinking about the implications of global trade. I was fascinated by the unregulated freeway of our oceans connecting all of us in search of the cheapest place to have coat hangers made. Recently our global supply chain has become a pivotal focus and is creating social awareness about the wide reaching impact of shipping ports. The purpose of my work is to encourage us to consider our part in the obsession with buying more and more things and to make a passionate plea for the preservation of our world for future generations. My current body of work juxtaposes my screen prints which pull you into a moment in the shipping port with my environmental collages which invite viewers into these industrial landscapes. My collages position the port within the natural landscape showing the larger framework that these industrial sites sit within.

Creating work about shipping ports has led me to travel to the major ports in the United States and to the Port of Colombo in Sri Lanka. Visiting the shipping port in Colombo in 2012 was a transformative experience. I was blown away by the fresh spices, tea, craftsmanship, culture, people and landscape. It seems a waste to focus on getting clothing made cheaply in Sri Lanka when they produce the only real cinnamon and some of the best teas in the world. Global trade is in the spotlight providing a unique opportunity for the entire world to be thinking more deeply about where the things they buy are made. Good or bad the recent threat of tariffs causes our network of sourcing materials to become unstable and has potentially world-wide implications.

Repurposing product packaging I create constructed collages of shipping ports which hang directly on the walls of the gallery and invite viewers to experience these important sites from a new perspective. In addition to my constructed shipping port collages, a few years ago I began making limited-edition screen prints. The graphic quality of this medium has allowed me to focus on dynamic moments in shipping ports. My prints have strong colors and perspectives that pull the viewer in with a nod to the advertising purpose behind the product packaging that has been my primary medium for many years. I am excited to present these two perspectives on the same topic. They are both connected and disconnected, which is an interesting example of how people see things very differently. This disruption gives us an opportunity to consider what is the best way forward. If we take away the flight to the least expensive solution for manufacturing products and start to add back what makes sense for the world environment, and for the materials and infrastructure that already exist, we will hopefully move towards a more successful balance.