I fell in love with this small beautiful island east of Puerto Rico the first time I visited. Friends had told me about the wild horses that roam here, but I had no idea I would be so seduced!

The roadways of Vieques are always shared with various bipeds and quadrupeds. Brahma bulls and their charges, goats, dogs, chickens, cats, geese, iguana and horses all add to the visual pleasure of walking or driving on Vieques.

Obviously it's the equine group that's captured my attention. When I first visited Vieques there wasn't a single postcard of a horse to be found, so, I set out to change that. These horses need a committed system of support(!) if anyone visiting here can figure out how to develope one; write me.

Horses have lived alongside humans for as long as we have been smart enough to make a place for them. Here on parts of Vieques, these animals are free to wander, breed, play, feed and wend their way under sun and rain, moon, wind and stars.

Roaming the beaches and fields, grazing in the sun or taking shade under mango trees or in thorny tunnels of mesquite and scrub… sometimes moving to cool their hooves in the Caribbean or Atlantic. They meander along roadways as well as stroll down center road, casually stopping traffic and dealing with mixed results.

Vieques is a very green island.

I guess it is because of its proximity to Puerto Rico's El Yunque-- a mountainous rainforest whose humidity often drifts skyward, assuring regular rains through cloud formation. Anyway that's what I imagine the process to be. Facts can be elusive. On Vieques, fact approaches a level closer to reality. It is a series of personal opinions, and all that that implies.

Wild horses. What is wild? This is a question worth pondering. What is free? An even better question. What is the value in contemplating a being making its way on earth with little interference? What are the consequences suffered? What benefits reaped? What can one learn about one's own life by directing thoughts towards these questions?

It is through these horses that I meditate on the guardianship of my own life. The aspects I direct as well as forces I am subject to.

Watching them, photographing them and being in their presence allows me to shake burdensome aspects of life today. My responsibilities fade; a simpler part of myself emerges and I nurture it. I watch their horseplay and contemplate the simple realities of a natural pecking order in life. And I think about the many forces both subtle and overt that shape and reshape this order over time. And finally, I wonder who is looking out for me....and a small and varied list blossoms slowly in mind.

I have created the body of work you see here to express my love for the natural wisdom embodied in these free roaming horses. If you visit Vieques, you will see that my vision is an extremely romantic one.

The following text was the artists statement installed with the exhibit

Caballos de Vieques' at Fort Conde de Mirasol Museum on the island of Vieques July/August 2006:

The headshots centered in the gallery are invitations to connect with these living beings who look out at the viewer from each photo.In my best encounters with horses I experience from them curiosity and trust mixed with a wariness that keeps both of us on our toes.
I admire the fact that they allow themselves to investigate me regardless of what their previous experience with human beings might have been.
  Curiosity is a valuable quality well  worth cultivating. I value it in whomever I meet and try myself to remain curious about as much as possible. It broadens the mind and enriches the imagination, making life more interesting.
   To me it is very important to recognize fragility and trust in any living being.
It is hard to show where one is fragile or vulnerable just as it is too easy to cover up our vulnerabilities with a tough non-feeling appearance; making life false- and worse- boring. Worse still is that we cut ourselves off from discovering ourselves because our energy goes into hiding behind a safe façade.
 
   I’ll never forget the first time I squatted with my camera to capture 6 or 8 horses who were widely dispersed  and grazing by Los Almendros . I was using a video camera and I watched thru the lens as they took note of me one by one and slowly approached me from their different locations. I never stopped looking thru the lens until I felt breath on my forearm, and, I looked up to see that each of the  horses had surrounded me in a circle.
  I wish now I had thought to bring that video and include it in the show.
  I became quite intimidated and spoke directly to the group surrounding me saying, ‘I have to tell you all, I am a bit frightened right now”.
And with that I slowly crouched backward and sort of crawled out from within their circle.
 
This was the very first time I recorded any image of Vieques horses.
I stood up and I said to my companion, ‘If that wasn’t an invitation to return and capture more then  I don’t know what is!”
  That was the last afternoon of our first vacation here 5 years ago.
From then on, every trip to Vieques has been driven by the urge to capture the beauty of these horses while enjoying their simple company.
 
In short I guess I am saying that it is exactly their simplicity and fragility that helps me reconnect with that part of myself and see it better in the people I meet. It is important that people do not allow themselves to continually become more hardened by life because
in the end, no one will even know themselves any longer.
 
We must not allow ourselves to become blind to beauty, but  cultivate beauty and the appreciative eye wherever possible and it follows that life becomes more beautiful.
7-14-06