Most of my photographic work in recent years has examined women’s lives. I also photograph other subjects - my travels, details of nature – but I always come back to portraits of women. I am disturbed by the ways in which women continue to be portrayed in American popular culture. Just when I think progress is being made, I am assaulted by yet another image of an emaciated scantily-clad young woman upside down in a garbage can, her lifeless feet advertising the latest fashion in shoewear. I become angry, and I feel the need to create images of authentic beautiful and intelligent women.

When I first discussed this artistic project with a friend, she suggested I call it by the acronym SIWOT, Strong Independent Women of Taos. That has been its working title, but now writer Lyn Bleiler and I have compiled the photos and writings about the women into a book entitled A Precarious Balance: Creative Women in Taos. Of course, the photographs in this series represent just a few of the hundreds of such strong, creative women living and working in Taos, New Mexico.