Echoes
I find individual receptiveness and perception fascinating. Consider the childhood game of playing "telephone" where one child whispers in the next child's ear what they think they heard and by the end of a long line of children the original sentence is never the same. Every human appears to see and hear the world uniquely, both on a deeply basic exclusive level and collectively in groups. Language, both word and visual, can be a tool for understanding and connection. But it may also effect the opposite. Through the Echoes and Artifacts Series I work with the visual tools of carved paper, movement, shadow, and light to investigate how we perceive, conclude, and choose to associate or separate based on fragile perceptions.
Parched
I took it for granted. After all, wasn't it everywhere? At least it had
been growing up in northern Wisconsin. But in Colorado, it was a different
story. The first time I really took notice was the new-to-me news that
installing a rain barrel to gather rain and water my freshly planted garden
was an illegal act - fineable by law. Water was handled differently there.
As it turned out, the water falling on one's roof was not one's own to keep.
It was a resource. Scarce and quantifiable. Bought and sold. "My" water
wasn't really my water. My water and everyone else's in Colorado is collected
in multiple ways by municipalities and dispensed accordingly - whether pumped
up from aquifers, divvied up from rivers and streams, collected in reservoirs,
or selectively managed through extensive ditch systems. This world of water
restrictions was an eye opener, and so began my inquiry into water sourcing,
water rights, preservation, conservation, and restoration.
My interest in water followed me home to Wisconsin thirteen years later.
And as my husband and I attempt to restore the woodland behind our house and
studio, I find myself continually interested in land health and its twin
sister, water health. They go hand in hand. I'm back in the land of
plentiful water - from lakes, rivers, streams, and a substantial yearly
precipitation. But what I find is that the land and water I took for granted
as a child and young adult has changed. It has been altered by invasive
non-native plants, quickly draining aquifers, and tainted with nitrates and
bacteria.
Water in Wisconsin used to seem so simple, so abundant, so pure. With my
eyes open now, I find it a complex issue, but nonetheless a stunningly
beautiful inspiration. In my work as an artist and sculptor I attempt to
capture moments in time of fleeting, transitory beauty. I distill the
multifaceted beauty of water into fundamental line and form. This interest
in the beauty of nature - its quiet stillness and gentle grace - continually
renews my spirit, no matter how complex the issues surrounding it. And
interpreting it in the medium of katagami-style hand carved paper and metal
sculpture is my way of capturing that beauty and purity forever.
Wave/Water
The Wave/Water Series focuses on the striking dialogue between moments so finite as to disappear in seconds and yet so vast and grand as to mirror the infinite.
Earth
All the information necessary to grow a plant can be found in a tiny seed. That seed grows, changes, expands, and expires only to begin again - cyclical, beautiful, and enduring. The Earth Series investigates these minute patterns of nature and studies their relationship to larger systems of order in the universe.
Wind
Wind on the high arid plains of Colorado sculpts the landscape with impressive force and is a constant wonder and inspiration for my work. The Wind Series is a study in contrasts - at times powerful and aggressive, at others graceful and fluid. The wind is a continual marker of the world in flux.
