Through sustained observation at Eagle Rock Lake, this series translates ephemeral interactions of light, water, wind, and temperature within the ecosystem into abstract visual records that reveal the dynamic, interdependent, and ever-changing nature of place.

Learnings from the Lake

At Eagle Rock Lake through the seasons, I study the meeting of water, wind, light, and temperature within the ecosystem as a dynamic form of impermanence. Raindrops generate concentric ripples that reveal interdependence through overlapping wave collisions. Across the surface, sunlight bends through refraction, entering water and ice to form shifting caustic networks: bright, clustered lines where reflected rays converge and scatter.

In winter, rapid freezing produces intricate crystalline events. Clear “black ice” acts as a prism, splitting light into prismatic color. Dendritic growth extends in branching, needle-like formations across the lake’s skin. Pressure and seepage push water through fissures, freezing into radial “lake stars” and delicate ice flowers, records of thermal fluctuation and force.

These phenomena are ephemeral, shaped by geometry, optics, and chance. I am so privileged to witness these moments of elemental play in which physics becomes visible, the lake remaking itself through light, motion, and freeze. The only constant is change: my work imprints these transient elemental structures as abstract visual translations of dynamic systems, always in motion.

The World I Made of Stories