This image, "Surf Dwellings", began with a shot I took off the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica, in the Gandoca Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge. I photographed the protuberant rock outcrop from a number of angles and found that this point of view offered a gravity defying perspective, which seemed a natural seed photo for one of my images. It was one of those shots that I thought I had a gut feel for, which I assumed meant that the image-making process would flow effortlessly. It didn't. It proved difficult, problematic and naturally made me question myself, the creative process, and what the hell I was doing. In other words I was approaching the moment where I might create something I really felt good about.

I thought some sort of structure would work its way into this piece. A funky or whimsical jungle dwelling perhaps. I'd shot some locations on the Nicoya peninsula (also in Costa Rica) with this in mind. I was wrong. I made multiple attempts at making the piece work and finally walked away from it.

It was midnight, a month later, sitting and reviewing photo excursions from a couple years before, when I passed through some shots taken in the Four Corners region at Hovenweep National Monument, that I suddenly realized it was to be a Skytribes piece. Over the next few hours I pulled in photo pieces of the unique Anasazi dwellings of that area. The piece was still on the verge of imminent deletion however, and my juicy hopes were rapidly turning to sour cynicism -- the point at which my mouse begins to cower, fearing a sudden flight across the room. Time to take a broad brush and bold stroke to it. So I laid a deep yellow gradation across the top layer and ratcheted through the blending modes until it finally clicked, and the golden light created a long awaited breath of cohesion and I could finally see it would come together.