Eden

In 1881 the Mormon church charged my relatives with establishing a settlement in Graham County, Arizona, along side the Gila river and southwest of the Pinaleno Mountains. The settlement was called Eden, and my father was born in this tiny town, now abandoned and left for the ghosts of the west. His large Mormon family was dirt poor and they made a life of farming and trading with the local Apache Indians. Eventually, my father left the church and took to the road, sampling dozens of professions including carnival worker, combine operator, miner, logger, carpenter, and musician before he settled down as a business man with a family.

As a child when putting us to bed, he would regale my sister and I with his stories of growing up and his adventures in all corners of the country. I returned to Eden, years after my father passed on, to understand his childhood and the land that shaped him so profoundly. My on-going project, Eden, not only celebrates his person but allows me to connect and examine his roots in religion and the west.