Artist Statement

I work as a printmaker to translate my drawings from the natural world into elemental reprieves – happy places that invite the viewer to slow down, live in the moment, and find optimism. I am dedicated to traditional printmaking processes, combining an innovative execution of those processes with cut paper and assemblage. The work is highly detailed, which allows me to explore our perceptions of both space and beauty, and is characterized by a methodical, technical approach. Additionally, it recognizes my own primal impulses.

 

I have been utilizing images of dirt, water, sticks, and gold to symbolize that which we impulsively crave, seek out, and hold valuable. My interest is in representing the ways that we build, dig, and explore the natural world, which is related to my interest in the primal desire to search the world for treasure, value, and fulfillment. My approach to rendering imagery is heavily influenced by natural history illustration from the nineteenth century and earlier.

 

My work is a representation of the act of searching for, and of our ability to recognize when one has found, something of ‘value’. I interpret these ideas in woodcut and wood engraving using natural imagery and pattern. These processes allow the integration of a high level of detail and the ability to work both very large (woodcut) and very small (wood engraving) simultaneously. The contrast in scale directly relates to the ways that I explore ideas of perception and seeing.

 

I’m currently working on several multidisciplinary explorations with printmaking as their stimulus, base medium, and structure. I’m interested in the capacity for multiples to be used to express big ideas by transforming spaces through installation; the structural integrity of works on paper and their capacity to be folded, bound, torn, and otherwise manipulated into dimensional artworks; and the sculptural and physical and conceptual possibilities that arise from making prints using materials other than just paper or ink.