Born in Detroit, Michigan, the city had been the center of my life until I moved at age 21. When I attended Center for Creative Studies in downtown Detroit in the late 60s, some of my classes were held in the old 3 story homes near the solitary building that housed the school at that time. My figure drawing class was on the second floor of a stately home that the school used. These old homes also surrounded Wayne State University, across Woodward Avenue from the art school, and near the Detroit Institute of Art. I longed to live in one of those homes then. It was the “hippie era”, and that turn of the century architecture was magic. 

I moved far away but as the years went by, I wanted to film or photograph the churches and residential architecture in Detroit. I finally was able to do just that in 2013 when I returned to the city with my camera. My patient cousin drove me for three days all around downtown Detroit and then back into Warren, the first city north of Detroit, where I had grown up. We would stop the car in the cold November weather, I would jump out and take a quick photo, and on we would go.

I used all my photos to create collages that embraced my love of the architecture of Detroit and the memories it evoked. My own symbology and imagery both past and present evolved into large paper works. The same magic was there for me as I manipulated the parts and pieces of the photos.

Revisiting the city that held so much importance growing up, being able to embrace it once again and creating with the imagery I had captured was my own journey back to my hometown.