I am drawn to what has been discarded, to birch bark found on walks in the woods or pieces of old rusty metal. I try to use what I find, what I am given, and repurpose it to let a new form emerge. It is this remaking from one thing to another, this dissolution of boundaries that interests me. My work explores transforming outmoded forms and giving them a more expansive embodiment. This embodiment can be expressed as a sculpture that morphs from one form to another or a print depicting a process of renewal.
I try to let the forms I am given inform the imagery that emerges in my sculptures and prints. I often use the materials I find in my wandering as surfaces to print on. I ink them up and print them onto handmade papers, then adhere them onto my intaglio prints. In this way, bark can be repurposed to become a map depicting an imagined new world. Corroded metal can be printed to reference a crumbling city or a barrier wall being washed away by the sea. Wood laminate might be printed in such a way that suggests images of climate refugees. Discarded auto parts and machine moldings grow bones, ferns, or feathers to become torsos shedding their outdated armoring.
I see things in nature and transform them into new representations. In a world that requires us to address change actively and with intention, drawing on this artistic practice has opened a pathway towards adaptation. This process has helped me engage more openly in my relationships and the way that I see the world. In this time of accelerating change we live in, we are being asked to take a hard look at our biases and our political and interpersonal relations, and try to shift them. For instance, climate change and global migration in the form of climate refugees is forcing us to rethink our concept of national identity, asking us to change from policies of isolation to those of inclusion.
I am interested in the role art plays in the wider social arena as an impetus for change, as well as its role in personal transformation. I think that personal change can come from one’s work in the world as well as from turning the gaze inward where our actions and beliefs can shift through centered awareness. My work explores the intersection between the external and the internal as new connections are created, and we find alternative sources of renewal. I am drawn to what happens when one form morphs into another, and we move from a binary and divisive human reasoning to a more interconnected way of being.
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