One September afternoon in 2024, I began a solo sail that would extend for 24 hours nonstop. There was light wind all day and night, but in the late morning of the second day, the wind picked up and my large genoa became overpowered. I pointed into the wind and waves and managed to douse the sail. It was a key moment of challenge and confidence-building as a singlehanded sailor.

I took a handful of photos in the summer of 2024, but they only existed on my phone with no digital backups. When I dropped my phone into Lake Mendota, a photo of my friend waiting in a canoe (our transportation to my moored sailboat) on the beach was the photo I missed the most. The Afterglow series emerged from my desire to memorialize moments that had vanished with my lost photos.

We tied the tiller straight, stood on the deck, and steered my 20 foot boat with our own dancing weight. The light bounced off the surface of the water and onto the boat, dancing with us.

The first time I slept aboard any vessel was on my own moored boat, soon after taking ownership for $1 and a promise to pay it forward. On that first morning, I awoke to a glassy lake; the profound calm of a windless, golden sunrise.

These thirteen lights are a constant presence on Lake Mendota, summer and winter.