Artist Statement
My work as a papermaker allows me to enjoy the incredible versatility of an ancient medium. It connects me to the natural world in a literal sense, but also leaves room for a rich fantasy life in the studio. Paper, like many things that inspire me in nature, is shaped by unseen forces like gravity, pressure, wind, evolution, and decay. Paper can be transformed by the addition of materials like paint, ink, graphite, and colored pencil, and also changed through reductive processes and sculptural techniques. Paper is possibility.
Paper is an adaptable vehicle that helps me explore the alien aspects of our natural world that captivate me with no material limits to my expression. I use repetition as a means to connect with the material in a measured manner. I consider my work and obsessive making a product, in part, of my anxiety and feelings of helplessness about the disastrous impact humans have had on the Earth. I hope that it is a channeling of my energy and labor into something beautiful and unique that inspires the viewer to be more curious and sensitive to the wonders of our natural world.