These collagraphs are made from ocean sand sprinkled onto a cardboard surface, adhered with matte medium and then covered with tin foil. Multiple plates are printed layer over layer allowing color and values to unfold. With these prints I try to show the forces of water, glacial ice, molten lava, rock, weather and wind that have carved an everchanging landscape. Magnificent forms and marks made on the earth are the evidence of immense energies over millions of years. The prints I make are intended to capture a sense of transformation, awe and unfathomable power only experienced by being out of suburban bounds into the wild outdoors.
This piece was created in 2020 for the L.A. Printmaking Society/Self Help Graphics & Art Show, ImMigration, in Los Angeles CA. It's shown here as a full square, however the curator, Mary Sherwood, seperated and re-paired everyone's entry with another, thereby re-framing the content and recreating a new piece.
I like to thread time spent outdoors in nature together with my artwork. Outdoor experiences are a vehicle to record perceptions of place with a moment in time. The landscapes I've been privileged to be in offers an opportunity to honor and observe the energy that nature provides.
Perceptions from adventures outdoors are what provoke my creative process. While I'm working, there are times when I have to let go and not be in the observation mode, and simply react to materials. Being spontaneous allows memories and imagination to fertilize the work.
I began drawing knitting to understand the mechanics of the stitch. Individual stitches interlock becoming a larger whole, similar to how living matter forms larger organs, ecosystems and communities. An interesting characteristic of knitting is that one side of the fabric is different than the other, ie. knit on one side and purled on the other. The opposing tension of the fibers is what gives the fabric it's elasticity as well as it's integrity. As I came to recognize the symbolism, the more interested I was to continue the drawings and make prints of them.
These images were inspired from a recent trip to Ireland where giant rocks are found througout the landscape. No one is certain why they are there or what their purpose was. Historians and archeologists can only guess. Their mysterious presence intrigues me. I'm attracted to their bold stance in the landscape and how they remain fixed throughout centuries of change. These rocks, placed where they are by someone, embody a deep past that is sublime, reverential and powerful in nature.
Making these cloud prints over a period of several years, was a way to celebrate the ever changing light and patterns observed in the sky. Printed with numerous layers of transparent inks, they are luminous and recollect moments of time spent outside in the mountains or on the ocean.
Plants are a subject matter because I love to garden. Its a delicious meditation to study the intricate manner in which certain plants grow. I am captured by their colors, delicacy, vibrancy, gesture, and their rootedness in the earth.
Birds are very special creatures. I love the way they flock, move, observe, fly, feed, navigate...