Scrappy is my canine companion and best friend. He and I have been on hundreds of camping and backpacking trips mostly through the wilderness of Arizona. He's a natural out there, and few things in life have given me as much joy as seeing him bound through the landscape. The series is a love affair of sorts, illuminating my love for Scrappy, nature, photography and light. Scrappy takes on many roles in these photographs; muse, protector, friend, guide, and ruckenfigur - amplifying the sublime. When taken as a whole, I believe he becomes an avatar in the spiritual sense. He embodies a divine force. Dogs are uniquely positioned between the domestic and the wild. When in the landscape his instincts kick in. Scrappy reminds us of the verdant wilderness that lives inside of us all and beckons us further in. He roves the landscape pulling you and me ever deeper towards the radiant light, protecting us from the dark, and metonymically giving us a chance to also traverse and inhabit these majestic spaces. The photographs illustrate a dance between the ever ebbing light, the unfolding landscape, this peripatetic dog of mine and me. I hope they express all the love, joy and rapturous beauty I experienced while creating them.