I was 22 the first time I went to Indonesia. I went simply on a college semester abroad. At the time, I was really interested in music, and went to study gamelan. The whole experience was eye-opening, and the amount of personal and cultural discovery has lasted me a lifetime, or at least was enough to initiate a much longer study and interest in Indonesia. I was just there about six months, but the impact on my creative and intellectual identity was enormous.▶0.1

When I discovered these things, it was an important time in my life, really a time with a strong development of identity. I think of it as no coincidence that I discovered photography for the first time just before departing for Bali. I still remember the feeling of engagement, creativity, and self-empowerment I discovered when I made my first photographs, really because I still feel the same when photographing today. I can say the same about my engagement with Indonesia; my time in Bali and Java always feels important, like an empowering time of creative and intellectual discovery.

For most of my adult life, I’ve pursued two distinct but parallel studies in the arts—as a photographer and artist of my own culture, and as a student and performer of Indonesian art and classical music. When I left college, I set off to begin my life as an artist. I moved to Denver, Colorado, to work with a group of musicians devoted to studying and advocating for Balinese and Indonesian arts.