Artist Statement:

I was honored to be invited to make still life photographs with cuttings from plants of The Arnold Arboretum. I walked around, mostly with Sheryl White, the exhibition curator, who would carefully cut a few branches from the plants we chose. I took them back to my studio to photograph. What a privilege, but even more, what a responsibility I felt to each plant to make an image worthy of its beauty, its being.

I begin with something from the natural world -- often a few stems with buds or flowers or just leaves, choose a vase or other prop, and look through my photographs of my homeland Prince Edward Island, images I made not long ago of the sea or rolling hills and sky. Natural light from my studio windows creates reflections and shadows. These are the elements I assemble in my studio, like a stage set, to make a photograph.  With my chosen bit of natural life, I work on composition, trying out different vases, background images and arrangements, while meaning brews subconsciously. And though I don’t fully understand it, a story reveals itself, even though it has neither an end nor clear beginning.

The main character is of course the natural life; it is the star of the show – grabbing my attention with its dominant presence. In more than one story, I see my protagonist on a journey, a refugee from a place half-way around our earth – and I wonder how did my heroine get to where she is now, what was the journey like, and, most concerning, was she welcomed and nourished (the vase, a sign of domesticity and care) or seen as a problem and mistreated? In another image, the story is of a group of young women, perhaps about to go to a party, unaware of a tragic loss soon to strike that will change everything. The stories I sense are incomplete, but they always hold both joy and sorrow, evidence one does not exist without the other. The mood is determined in part by the main character – its posture, its expression, its tone brilliant or subdued – but even more, by the sky and reflections and shadows, which I think must be memories. Hardly a story though, as it is so very ambiguous. Maybe the image is more like a poem – a moment, an image, metaphor.

Bio:

 Vaughn Sills’ photography engages two primary concerns – the personal, inner lives of people, often but not only her own, and a deep connection with the natural world. The two often overlap as the natural world, in her work, metaphorically represents human experience, offers emotional sustenance, and inescapably concerns our threatened planet. Her early work also focused on culture and social concerns.

Her work has earned awards from the Massachusetts Cultural Council (two Artist’s Fellowships in Photography, and twice, a Finalist); Artadia Dialogue for Art and Culture, the Polaroid Foundation; The New England Foundation for the Arts; and the President’s Fund for Faculty Excellence from Simmons University. Among her museum and gallery exhibits. Vaughn’s photographs have been shown at the Griffin Museum of Photography, DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, Gibbes Museum in Charleston SC, DuSables Museum of African American History in Chicago, US Botanic Garden in Washington, DC, and most recently the Arnold Arboretum in Boston.

Vaughn’s photographs are in the collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, DeCordova Museum, Harvard Art Museum, Simmons University and the Fidelity and Eaton Vance Collections, as well as private collections. She holds an MFA from RISD and is Associate Professor Emerita at Simmons University.

Two books of Vaughn’s photographs have been published: Places for the Spirit, Traditional African American Gardens (Trinity University, 2010) and One Family (University of Georgia, 2001).