Artist Statement

My creative work explores ecological changes by using handmade paper, plant materials, and pigments, to portray themes around our shifting world. Whether these shifts are from the seasons passing, flowers blooming, leaves changing, or from natural disasters like floods, fires, or drought, these changes in the natural world and to our landscapes evoke emotions and affect our lives. To be connected with our natural world is to live within these cycles; we adapt to changes brought on by climate change, observe the passing of time, and revel in the repetitions nature provides. From tiny seeds germinating in the spring, to the seeds releasing from a dried plant stalk in the cold of winter, the cycles ebb and flow. We’ve grown apart from some of the natural rhythms with modern conveniences, but if we commit to reconnecting we can still be in relationship with many of these shifts.  

Handpapermaking is the backbone of my creative process. I’m captivated by the fragility and lightness of paper used in sculptural form and have found such experimentation and person-ability to be found in the process of making the paper from which I work. I begin by gathering natural elements or choosing the colors to incorporate into the paper pulp. The paper is made, then cut and rolled into circles in a meditative repetitive process. Flecked with plant material or dyed in muted colors, the circles become a translation of the original natural form. Assembled together on found branches, the circles form sculptures or large scale installations mimicking natural forms such as foliage, coral, snow, bubbles, or cells. A single form on its own sometimes is underwhelming, but assembled alongside many others it becomes something larger and more profound.