Heart's Desire addresses the many milestones we hope to achieve, challenges we work through, and defining moments we experience throughout our lifetimes.

This piece is inspired by the Milagros and ex-votos I photograph and collect during my travels. In Latin American countries, Catholic worshipers attach small medals of hearts, body parts, people, pets, crops etc. called Milagros (meaning miracles) to holy statues, as offerings for divine intervention or in gratitude for help or healing that has already occurred. In European Catholic churches, similar but larger and more ornate silver votive offerings, called ex-votos, are found encased in wall cabinets surrounding statues of religious figures. I am attracted to these small offerings visually, but more importantly I am drawn to their symbolism and the intense spirituality they represent. Milagros and ex-votos have appeared in my work for the past twenty years and are among the influences which inspire me to call my work Small Offerings.