All Rights Reserved ©2007 and 2013 Library Of Congress

As a lifelong equestrian, I’ve been deeply moved by the majestic creatures as both animals and as mythological beings. Unfortunately several years ago I had a serious freak accident, (not on a horse) and broke my back. Much like my idol Frida Kahlo, we both sustained severe scoliosis and myriad complications from our spinal injuries, and like Frida I too turned to my art and even self portraiture as a means to cope with the unbearable pain and isolation that any severe disability creates, therefore as artist’s we are forced to create fierce interior world’s, which is what I did more specifically since my accident for the last seventeen years.

Luckily in my case and due to the advancements of innovative modern spinal reconstructive surgery I recently underwent a fifteen hour surgery where my spine was fused and essentially sewn back together from top to bottom. I was intubated, put on a ventilator and had three blood transfusions! I’m extremely happy to reveal that the complex surgery was a success and for the first time in nearly twenty years I am pain free. I only wish that Frida could have had the chance to receive such an operation, sparing her years and years of unspeakable pain.

In this series two magazines are concurrently featuring for March and April of 2024 part of this roject., The horses I photographed belonged to a rancher woman, Betty in Marfa, Texas. Marfa has long been an established ranching community and first came to fame for the seminal film Giant. It is now an artist’s Mecca due in large part to Donald Judd’s Chinati Foundation. I received a one year fellowship at the International Women’s Foundation as an artist in residence.

While in Marfa I photographed relentlessly. Having just completed a one year project, a photographic survey of the American Southwest, which was funded in part by the Tucson Council on the arts, I used my time in the residency to edit my project Inside the Copper Corridor, a survey of the copper mines, the yellow cake mines and the mercury miner’s of Terlingua Texas. I photographed the Southwest’s inhabitants from ranchers and their horses and I also addressed the grave impact of global warming. My website www.nativelightphotography.com goes into detail about these issues. Please refer to the Secret Life of the Desert Ecosystem, and visit Collection Images for more pertinent text and a visual survey of the Southwest.

I dedicated this series to one of my closest friends who died suddenly in her sleep at only 61! Connie Kelley was the most accomplished equestrian I’ve ever known as she rode in Andalusia with the Spanish Riding School of Dressage. She was my trainer and dearest friend and taught me everything I’ve ever known about horses.

One fun side note, the horse featured in this article was probably in his very late twenties and often followed me wherever I went! Also, Betty had her own plane as many ranchers do and flew herself once a week to El Paso, a five hour road trip, on her own air plane as many rancher’s have their own to her beauty parlor to get her hair done. I always got a kick out of this. She was well beyond her retired years yet she still lived on her working cattle and quarter horse ranch though due to age she hired out as is common in the community.