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I create wall mounted collages from discarded materials to contrast familiar positions-religious, political, and social- with the elegant rhythms of ecology.

 

Each studio session is a meditation on my conviction that we profoundly misunderstand our position in the hierarchy of the Natural Order, and an invitation to question the embedded belief that we alone possess intrinsic value.

 

From paper and other found items, I draw historical information, ponder scientific inventions, and remember personal moments. Attuning myself to the visceral qualities of the materials feels like writing poetry. The result is a suggestive, intimate collage, created through a variety of responsive methods.

 

For example, sometimes, I rip a piece apart, only to sew it back together, before I poke holes in it. Papers often stick together accidentally, and I need to scratch them apart, which creates unintentional marks that nudge me in a new direction. My mark-making can threaten to overtake my composition if I’m not careful, like zebra mussels that clog northern waterways, or invasive kudzu plants that smother southern landscapes. When I apply paint over layers, I think of sedimentary rock strata, and lost civilizations, when one form of life dries up and becomes obscured by the next... 

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