I walked on the beach to do a series of self-portraits for an online photo workshop I’m taking over at Artist at Large. The assignment was to take a self-portrait only we couldn’t be in it anywhere. First I went around my house and took pictures of every messy place. There were a lot of them. I thought to myself, chaos. Unorganized. I am.

Then I thought of the way I want to be. Silent inside. Calm. So I walked on the beach to see what would draw me. I found myself attracted to all of the “unstable cliff,” “danger, keep back,” signs. And I was drawn to taking photos of things that were alone.

I had no idea this assignment would give me so much to think about.