Artist Statement
Collecting abandoned industrial items from decrepit farmhouses and urban alleyways the nation over has led me to develop an art practice simultaneously concerned with American memory, environmentalism, scavenging, and intricate paper-craft technique. My collages are composed entirely from found, repurposed vintage magazines whose papers have begun to decay and discolor, lending the work a nostalgic quality. My treatment of this material is, at once, delicate and precise; labor intensive attention is paid to color and texture as I hand-cut thousands of tiny paper elements for each large-scale collage. My intention is to render as vivid of detail as possible by layering and combining specific paper pieces; relaying the textural grandeur of Native American regalia or the roughness of an animal’s fur. As a former Interpretive Naturalist for the USDA Forest Service, I focus on flora, fauna, and Americana subject matter in order to steward national, agrarian craft traditions into the present.
Festivals
Media
2D Mixed Media