Landscapes are collections of stories, only fragments of which are visible at any one time. In linking these fragments, diverse landscapes can be recreated as personal landscapes and stories. The desert landscapes of the American Southwest, whose historical stories are so well known and documented, are hard to dismiss. Researching and living in this high desert wilderness, where foreign birds and animals migrate, that intrinsic human connection to wilderness is simultaneously intensified and made stranger. Even though artworks are creations of imagination they can still produce very real transformation. The act of painting serves as a human kinship to the land and it's creatures, a tribute to the natural world, which itself becomes a form of devotion. It is a devotion that transports both the artist and the viewer away somewhere, where there are only the sounds of the wild, the colours of desert sands and the songs of the hills.