In 1927 internationally renowned russian artist, Nicolai Fechin, moved with his wife and daughter to Taos, New Mexico where he produced some of his most notable paintings. He designed and built a house and studio which fused Russian, Hispanic and Native American aesthetics. Unfortunately, Fechin's time in Taos was cut short when in 1933 his wife, Alexandra, filed for divorce. Nicolai and daughter Eya settled in California, leaving Alexandra with the house in Taos. By 1946, when maintenance on the large home proved too burdensome,Alexandra closed the house and moved into the studio. The house remained closed for the next thirty years.

   Eventually, Eya returned to Taos and in 1981 formed the Fechin Institute to secure her father's legacy. The immaculately preserved residence now houses The Taos Art Museum and serves to showcase Nicolai Fechin's paintings, carvings and the furniture he built. The studio is a venue for a rotating roster of local artist's exhibitions. I exhibited my 'Covidvanitas' series there in 2021.

  In 2022 the museum's director, Christy Coleman, unearthed a trove of long forgotten Fechin-family ephemera in the cramped, dank basement of the fechin House; boxes of letters, cosmetics, buttons, varnish,tubes of oil paint, packs of cigarettes, and a 

plethora of bottles of every sort. Much of the detritus was more trash than treasure, but Christy saw the potential stories these discards could tell and proposed the project to me.

  Over the course of two years, I ferried boxes of the dusty detritus from the museum to my studio. Slowly, through my lens, the stories revealed themselves; a portrait of a family, a failed marriage, a woman's struggles on her own, a specific place in time.

The resulting body of work was mounted throughout the entirety of the fechin House from June 2024 until May of 2025 and consisted of 42 prints.