Reading the Landscape, Abel Contemporary Gallery, PAoli, Wi

Making visual notes, sketches of botanical and biological material, informs how I see the world. In 2016 I began studying pollen grains as seen through a microscope, field guides to leaves, galls and diseases that form on leaf surfaces, the shapes of trees, and colors that appear in lichens and moss. Fabric sculptures, quilts, textiles, and drawings are a result of reading the landscape.

I am interested in depicting the physical traits of our surroundings by combining general references like those found in field guides and changing the physical characteristics through color, line and texture.

My intention when creating this work is a visceral response to my surroundings informed by all of its details. I work off of photos, illustrations, micrographs, or technical drawings of plant anatomy on a cellular level because often these depictions reveal details that I cannot see with my own eye. I am interested in what this looks like, but want to create my own landscape.

This body of work walks the line between abstraction and representation. I am looking at real stuff from the world, but I don’t feel bound in any way to depict it with scientific accuracy. Rather, my work is a formal response, to create a texture, awkwardness, personality and make something altogether new.