Virtue in my Veins
2004

The Virtue in my Veins series is inspired by my 52-year-old father’s recent emergency open-heart surgery and the three long days my mother and I spent in the intensive care unit with him.

After the procedure, we were allowed to visit for 15 minutes every two hours, which made for a lot of waiting. During those long hours, I documented the family room and visiting experience using a camera phone. I abstracted these photographs and superimposed them upon images of my father at more vital times. I sized the images to 14×17—standard chest x-ray dimensions—then printed them on duratrans and mounted them on light boxes. These glowing, layered pieces are meant to encourage the viewer to reevaluate the complex machinery of their own bodies, and recognize the beauty of its seemingly effortless functioning—a phenomenon that cannot be taken for granted at any age.