ECCLESIASTES

2 Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity.

3 What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun?

4 A generation goes, and a generation comes but the earth remains forever.

5 The sun rises and the sun goes down and hastens to the place where it rises.

6 The wind blows to the south and goes around to the north; around and around goes the wind, and on its circuits the wind returns

7 All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full; to the place where the streams flow, there they flow again.

8 All things are full of weariness; a man cannot utter it; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.

9 What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun

10 Is there a thing of which it is said, “See this is new”? It has been already in the ages before us.

11 There is no remembrance of former things, nor will there be any remembrance of later things yet to be among those who come after.

18 For in much wisdom is much vexation, and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.

All is Vanity is a concise group of images representing one year of my life, two relationships, and a new career;  a meditation on seeking a world to receive satisfactorily.
I now understand the images as punctuations of change, acquisitions and expressions of love, acceptance of life cycle and the circuits of change, a heralding of self-sufficiency, and a longing for community and belonging.  The imagery is loosely based on 17th Century Vanitas paintings which conveyed the contrast between love of life and sentiment of death, from the Latin meaning 'emptiness' or the Hebrew translation 'smoke,' we are steeped in the vanity of earthly possessions and yet fulfillment is fleeting.