KAYAKING THROUGH THE QUARANTIMES (2020-2021) is a 20 minute digital film documenting the waterways throughout Detroit and Southeast Michigan, from Saginaw to Toledo, over the course of 2020. Compiled from 15 different kayaking trips, April to December of 2020, using both an iPhone and a GoPro camera. The completed work features 132 clips from these trips, including many locations along the Detroit River, the canals of Grosse Ile, the shipwrecks and Blue Heron rookery of Stony Island, the concrete banks of the Rouge River from Melvindale to Greenfield Village, the industrial Rouge, from Ford's Rouge Plant to Zug Island, the tugboat junkyard of the Saginaw River and beneath the Zilwaukee Bridge, the choppy mouth of Toledo's Maumee River and its many docked freighters, the placid stretches of the Huron River from Milford to Lake Erie, the old industrial ship-slips from Ecorse to Nicholson Terminal, US Steel, and the wreck of Charles Sorenson's yacht Helene, and countless old railroad bridges, viaducts and freeway overpasses. Started as a photography project in 2017, kayaking Detroit was initially a way for me to photograph areas of Delray, Oakwood Heights, and other City locations, from hard-to-see vantage points and perspectives. Over the years, the experience of kayaking has developed into a full-blown obsession, a much-needed connection to nature and quietude, an art project in itself. Like most of my site-specific artworks and installations throughout Detroit, kayaking allows me to seek out and find the hidden and lesser traveled parts of the City, and observe nature and animal life that's often otherwise unseen. From birdwatching the dozens of herons, cormorants, swans, terns, kingfishers, and eagles, to spotting beavers, turtles and countless muskrats swimming along, and watching rabbits and deer find their way to the water for a drink, the rivers of Southeastern Michigan are an endless source of natural inspiration and photography. This project is a direct result of the strange year that was 2020. Once the quarantine of Covid-19 took hold, suddenly thrust into having more "free time," I found myself able to slow down and explore the outdoors, revisiting sites and project ideas that I previously had zero time for. Kayaking through "The Quarantimes" felt like the perfect antidote for a challenging year: I was able to observe, meditate, and find solace in nature, I got plenty of fresh air and exercise, and I was able to work on various projects and ideas, all while socially distancing from others. This video is a glimpse into that 20/20 hindsight view from the kayak. Watch the full film here.