Indigenous and Eastern Influences
My maternal Grandmother was a member of The Little River Band of Ottawa Indians (in the western, lower peninsula of Michigan). Her life was rich with observation, respect, and the sense of stewardship for our natural world common among indigenous peoples. Growing up in the Great Lakes region, the spirit of water is inescapable as subject, context, and medium.
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My paternal grandmother was born and raised in Tokyo, Japan (and was herself an accomplished illustrator). I incorporate many of the influences of Japan's Nihonga style; preparing my watercolors and inks principally from raw mineral and organic materials. Prepared in this way, these pigments bring a direct connection from their natural origins to the images they form.
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Building Blocks
Seasonality
Encompassing all of my work is the constant ebb and flow of the seasons, the shape of water: ice, snow, rain, and the glint of the sun as it diminishes and returns. As I respond to the shifts from one to the other it becomes apparent within my work. There is a tug every spring and fall to capture every fleeting moment, each moment begs to be held. With this thought I return yearly to botanical sketching as a method of practice, and as an expression of gratitude to the ephemeral. With the abstracted works, I use the nature of water to form the terrain bases. Using the pelting spring rains to thrash the ink into the paper, and the gentle blanket of snow, to create patterns that can only be created under the soft pillow of winter. Both of these techniques embrace seasonality not only through the method, but in how they express the season. The giddy feeling of spring expressed through the pummeling rains, the softness of winter through the gentle glide of heavy snowflakes. The seasons and my relationship to them is ever present, unavoidable, and binds all of my work.
Architectural Figurines
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Figurative works encompass both feelings about connectivity, and my relationship to the built and unbuilt environment. They are a constant in my repertoire of motifs. Within them is expressed a love of architectural forms and the balance between organic and inorganic patterning. My interest and fascination with the creation of buildings, cities, infrastructure and how this relates to our bodies and our sense of belonging is something I often consider when working. This comes back to my experiences living very close to nature and at times voluntarily homeless; an early turn of the century abandoned quonset hut, an old long abandoned landfill, the small 10' x 10' cubicles of Arcosanti, nights out in the desert while hitchhiking. Our idea of space, and how we frame the idea of home is ever on my mind, woven together by my experiences of both having these spaces, and often the most beautiful of them being the most minimal.
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Ornamentation
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It is in our nature to create patterns amongst the chaos, I can tie much of my work both within the art of creating and of living to this habit; trying to bring two strands together to create a whole. There is a beauty in finding that there are too many ends, often we cannot see them, obscured by our smallness of thinking and being. The ornamentation in much of my work stems from this, but is also pulled from the desire to imbue objects with another layer of honor. The time we give to each other and objects is love, adoration. Much of my work has highly stylized ornamentation, layered over chaotic terrains which I also labor over. This contrast again speaks to the relationship between the space we inhabit, and the unknown, the built and unbuilt.
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