A Circle of Bluebirds re-imagines the history of the artist's family in Armenia and Italy through three different lenses: a telescope, a microscope, and the artist's imagination. Photographs of the sun, Saturn, and the north star are infused with other-worldly images overlaid onto landscapes as themes of love, happiness and connection absent from the stories of Harruthoonyan's past create visions of a new earth.

On this other earth, bluebirds, an ancient symbol of love and happiness, take the place of distant stars. A young girl swallows a star, and, butterflies weave through constellations and space dust. The Van Allen belt, a protective field between the realms of astronomy and biology, is the invisible circle holding the artist's vision together. In this belt, the creation, destruction and re-creation of energy is constantly occurring - not unlike the memories of the places where our families are born, and reborn, throughout generations.

While it cannot be seen with the naked eye, when the movement of this energy is translated into auditory waves, it sounds like a circle of birds chirping - proving that it is, perhaps, only our limited mentalities or methods that keep us from experiencing the new worlds awaiting just beyond the stories that defined our past.

Typically, Gordon Reynolds does not preplan his photographs, nor does he work on projects, though he has several series that are constantly expanding. Mainly, he relies on luck, and a good bit of walking around. The subjects that interest him most are things from the man-made world, especially those that seem odd, mysterious, and/or timeless. While he has come to enjoy making photographs in the landscape it’s really the urban setting he most likes to explore.

These photographs were taken a week apart on two days in January, 2015. He has been to the area, Discovery Park, many times before and since, usually during the fall and winter months. On these two occasions the American River was low and flat with barely a ripple on the water, making a fine reflective surface. He felt like he was walking among finely preserved monuments from the past. They are hulking things, these pillars, and he wanted to capture a sense of serene ageless grandeur.