Artist Statement

Petra Page-Mann of Fruition Seeds in New York speaks about how the plants grow us more than we grow them.  This is painfully and beautifully true.  Plants are generous with their lessons.  Through them I know that death is noble as it opens up space for others to flourish.  Decay nourishes that which is living.  There are ecosystems we cannot see, but through which we deeply benefit.  All life is lived in cycles.  

I seek to translate and visualize these lessons through an interdisciplinary practice.  My work explores the colors, textures, and forms of organic matter unveiling a language of plants, animals, and minerals.  My collaboration with the natural world primarily takes on the forms of printmaking, alternative photographic processes, mixed media drawings/paintings, and culinary performances. I may use the color of parsley to create anthotypes or pigments.  The texture and form of parsley lends itself nicely to drawings and prints.  The color and flavor of parsley finds its way into cocktails and food.  Each medium and method highlights the potential and deepens the appreciation of any given element.

My latest series of work honors the details of leaf margins.  Here, leaf monoprints using a gel plate are layered onto silk scrolls.  The placement and location of these scrolls determine the meaning and usage of it as an object.  If hung outside in my garden, the wind gracefully dances with the material, sun shining through its fibers.  The scrolls are a part of the living landscape, it breathes as its brothers and sisters still in the ground breathe.  When hung on a wall, the scrolls become still and available for contemplation.  Eyes can narrow in on the movement within the composition and rest on an area of depth or detail.  There are little worlds throughout this scroll, an unconventional form of landscape.

**CV is available upon request.