I am one of the few artists who are also an interior designer. I understand how we live with art.

Living with art is a totally different experience from appreciating it in a gallery. Art should harmonize with your home décor, obviously, but it there is a spatial relationship to the work of art in your home. In a gallery, there is nothing else competing with the art. In your home, other artworks or decorations compete for your attention, the size of the room; your furniture and its placement are important factors. Your home is your safe haven filled with good feelings and I believe art should reflect that emotional connection.

A few years ago I realized my life was pretty much flat and would stay that was if I didn’t do something about it: I was stuck in a job that I didn’t enjoy, I lived a selfish life and nothing brought me much joy. I wasn’t unhappy but I certainly wasn’t happy. Two years ago I decided to make two major life changes. I chose to follow my “bliss”, to do what makes me happy, and the other was to start making a contribution to the larger community. My bliss is my art and my contribution was to other people’s happiness.

When I fully embraced this, the transformation in my work was almost instantaneous. There’s confidence now that previously didn’t exist and I fully embrace the process of making a great work of art. The photography I do always brings happiness and feel good factor.

I like to shoot really close, trying to balance shape and the ethereal. I work with the light to create an airy, out of this world feeling. When I look at these photos it doesn’t feel like we’re on the same planet. I really don’t understand how evolution works to make these plants part of perfect ecosystem.I like to get feel of the subject, while not loosing the essence of it.

I try to keep some form of recognition, some context to help the viewer see and feel connected to this new dimension I am showing them. Once they realize what they are looking at they suddenly take a leap in perspective and realize just how small the subject is.

I don’t like to play with the photos once they are taken. I like knowing that the final shot is really what I see – it’s my vision I offer. The usual response I get is “wow, I would have never seen this, it’s breathtaking”. I am unveiling a part of nature, a detail that we pass over everyday.

I love being outdoors, especially trekking but I usually go alone. I am very hard to hike with. I have travelled to some beautiful scenic locations but, instead of looking around, most of the time I am lying on the ground, camera in hand, staring at some minute plant.

Although shape and the architectural forms of the plant parts are important to the success of my photography; the flora’s symbolic nature and bold colours really create that inspiration I want to impart. Yes, everyone loves flowers but we use flowers for all sorts of things: we give them to sick people to cheer them up, to say “thank you” to a host, to indicate love interest, or to commemorate our dead. These are all normal and taken for granted forms of expressions. What I am attempting to do is going beyond these iconic expressions to try breathing life into the flower itself. My method of photographing is like taking a portrait of the flower. I like to pull out one aspect of the subject, or an overall sensibility of the subject. Working with focus and depth of field really gives the plant substance. I want to show that it is not just a plant but that the viewer should respect the plant.

There is a great story, an analogy, about our world being a speck of dust underneath the fingernail of a giant in another world. That is what it feels like to me when I shoot macro, only in reverse – I look at my photos and think we are part of a much bigger system. “Your photography invokes a feeling of spiritual belonging...makes me feel like I am part of a larger perfection.” (Ingrid Szoghy, exhibit visitor) Everything has its place – in our parallel worlds– and we all have a job to do. Instead of looking outward in space, there are worlds right in front our noses. I love seeing something as small and seemingly insignificant as a flower petal that has as much weight as a boulder we might walk by.

My photography has been a journey of self discovery. It is a crossing over to a totally new landscape, a miniature one. I take each part of the plant as an element of my own personality; embracing all of it. I get to know myself, intimately. I learn to respect all my gifts I have been given. The good, the bad, and the ugly; all have their place and are beautiful in their own way. This is what I achieve in my photography.”

And not only am I an artist and interior designer but also a business woman with an MBA.”I guess my mind works in mysterious ways, in all directions. It really helps me to get the big picture, even though I shoot mostly in macro photography.”