I created this piece while fulfilling an eight-week artist’s residency the Champagne region of France. Before leaving for the residency, I learned of the local controversy over the safety of a nuclear power plant in nearby Nogent, and its effect on the water quality of the Seine. Upon my arrival I began collecting water samples from several points along the path of the river between Paris and Nogent, while simultaneously interviewing people who make the Seine part of their everyday lives.
The water samples were sealed in glass pipettes; however, before being sealed each sample was tested to reflect its PH balance and given a dose of ink to signify the individual results. Lower PH levels can occur when radium levels increase. The two thousand samples collected varied greatly in their PH levels. Great disparity in PH levels existed even in those samples that were collected in close proximity to one another.
In conducting the interviews, each of the subjects was asked a very similar series of questions. Their answers varied greatly, as one would expect, according to their lived experience and their perception of the water’s current condition. The subjects varied in both age and socioeconomic status. I found the disparity and similarities in both the water samples and the recorded individual experiences to be profound examples of the predictable and the unpredictable in both ecology and sociology.
The final exhibition of the Current Loss included installation of the glass pipettes laid out on the gallery floor to mimic the path of the Seine surrounded by sand from the riverbed and audio recordings of the resident interviews.
This sculptural installation is focused on systems in nature, not entirely predictable through known scientific methods.
"Descent" addresses both human population dynamics, and oscillations in seed production seen in the forest during "mast years".
In the deciduous forest the occurrence of a mast year is marked by the overabundance of seeds. Masting behavior has been the subject of a significant number of studies, yet is still considered to be irregular and unpredictable.
The plaster and wax castings in this work are made from clay representations of hybrid seedpods. The castings are made mute by the rigidity of their material and the absence of color, and yet they convey a sense of potential energy. Their silhouette and volume suggest fertility.
Each casting is engraved with a surname and date. This marking suggests a direct lineage to the person named- as if each pod were charged with the task of sowing those particular seeds.
Installed under an existing tree, each pod is attached to the trees branches by a single fragile line of filament. These lines of origin are barely visible but create a web into which viewers must enter with caution. The web is visible only at certain angles and times of day dependent on the available light.
These sculptural sketches represent a recurring theme in my work, the study of seeds as survivors. Seeds simultaneously represent potential energy and dormancy. I am fascinated by their capacity to undergo the most extreme environmental conditions without losing their ability to adapt, survive and germinate.
The confessional comb represents the accumulation of individual sculptural cells- each containing a single participant’s confession. The paper confessions are anonymously submitted to the artist and then folded into hexagons, submerged in bees wax and added to the comb as the piece progresses.
This piece speaks to both the beauty and symmetry of the naturally occurring honey comb, created by hundreds of individual bees, each by their very nature, charged with the continual task of building this collaborative environment. The piece draws on the ability (and often need) to compartmentalize our thoughts and process our actions through ritual. The act of confessing one’s inner most
thoughts to another person, admitting fault, and submitting that confession to be processed, preserved and woven into this structure becomes a ritual of sorts. The confessions are brought together to form a paper and wax structure, which is at
once formidable and vulnerable.
"Quelea" is part of a series of works entitled Natural Invaders which draws similarities between impaired mental states and species considered to be "pests." “Quelea” associates this avian agricultural invaders with debilitating anxiety and the futility of our compulsion to exert control.
This series is focused on my study of currents in the Mediterranean sea. These watercolor, gouache and ink paintings serve as meditations on the the seemingly endless expanse traversed by refugees and migrants en route from Northern Africa to various points in Europe.
Traverse is a work in progress. Over the past 2 years I have been engaging in interviews with migrants and refugees to both the United States and countries in Europe. In this large scale multi media series, I am focused on examining the changing value assigned to these individuals by the various territories they move through, as well as the value they assign themselves across the arcs of their lives.
