Within the Bittersweet is a dark, pastoral narrative about raising my children amid concerns about the impacts of climate change and environmental contamination. The photographs in the project were taken in and around my home in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, where dense vegetation and natural beauty intersect with industrial and fossil-fuel facilities that dot the region. These industries spread noxious particulates and hazardous toxins across the terrain and into the air, water, and our bodies. 

In my artwork, the dark realities of the landscape we live in are interlaced with representations of my deep love for my children and the physical world around them—a living tapestry of incredible complexity that my daughters are just coming to know. Climate change will undoubtedly reshape the world they inherit, and through these photographs, I negotiate the beauty and heartbreak of raising them on a wondrous planet in the midst of such rapid and impactful change.