Lake Michigan Song

Water is essential for life, it is sacred. We are water. My sabbatical research project centered on the waters of Lake Michigan, specifically, the liminal spaces where the water meets the land.

During 2010 and 2011, I traveled and documented sites along the northern part of Lake Michigan, taking photos and videos and collecting water, stones, and sand from each location.

Using a digital collage technique, I layered the photographs with diagrams of instruments of water, geological time, plant life, and human organs. These became digital prints. Shelves were made to hold the apothecary bottles of water samples below each print.

The work was installed in the gallery as stations roughly mirroring the order of my travels. A copper pan of water surrounded by Cedar sat in the middle of the gallery and a video of the lake played in an alcove.

The juxtapositions of photos, diagrams, and physical presentation asked viewers to reflect on how we live in relationship to water. Through this body of work, I celebrate the power of Water to renew us.