some of my images are very personal - almost painfully personal. as an artist, it can be terrifying to expose such personal things to the world. this is one of those images.

i was adopted at the age of two by the two best parents for whom i could have asked. when i was in sixth grade, my family moved to a small town in northern wisconsin. it was a town where everyone knew everyone and most of the families had lived in the area for generations. so when a new kid from chicago shows up, the other kids ask questions - like what’s your family’s heritage? i would tell them i was adopted, and many of the kids said they were sorry. it wasn’t a bad gesture by those kids, but it made me realize that i was different.

as i continued to grow up, i had a growing desire to find out who i was and where i came from. you can’t escape the fact of adoption as so many forms ask for your family’s heritage, medical forms ask you to present your family history from a medical standpoint. and this is a common experience for all adoptees. eventually, you begin to realize as an adoptee missing out on your own history, that many people don’t know what that’s like. we adoptees don’t wear hats that state we were adopted. it’s odd that when i’ve mentioned my adoption to people i’ve known for years, they blurt out in response, “i was adopted too!” yet, we’d never known that through the years. and so, many of us grow up feeling as if no one understands us.

that feeling of being alone in going through what we’re going through, is what this sea stack, off the shore of rialto beach in olympic national park represents to me. as i’ve said in the past, my landscape photos are of (sometimes) wonderful landscape scenes, but they often have a much deeper meaning.

so yes, this one is painfully personal. it’s tough to admit we aren’t, or weren’t “doing great” at a point in our lives. but by admitting just that, perhaps we can make others a bit more comfortable in admitting the same. as i’ve learned all to well in my recovery from alcoholism, we’re only as sick as our secrets.