As an artist and educator, my life has been devoted to making, teaching and promoting visual art. This pursuit both energizes me and feeds my soul. This image is a result of layering several exposures, using a variety of transparency filters. When I captured the images it was a bright sunny day in Shaanxi Province in central China, the sky was exceptionally blue, and I was intrigued with the twisted branches of this unusual tree. I have always been attracted to abstract patterns. We are bombarded by chaos everyday and look at patterns to make sense of it all. To organize the stimuli we ignore most things and concentrate on the details only when necessary. I see this series of photographs as studies in random patterns and abstractions, found in nature where they can be quickly recognized . Realism is understood through its imperfections. I look to isolate and somewhat exploit nature's diversity within the patterns, while isolating the viewers perspective.