My current body of work focuses on North American wildlife and the cycles of energy in nature. My process involves a lot of research on different animals, including their behavior, diet and anatomy. I document this research in sketchbooks and playfully reorganize the information at this stage. In final pieces, I use watercolor and inks on paper, mylar and yupo paper.
I live and work in Jamaica Plain, MA (a neighborhood of Boston) and grew up in Newton, New Hampshire. In 2007, I received a BFA from Massachusetts College of Art. My love of nature stems from my childhood, spending summers camping and hiking and winters skiing. I continue to travel to natural areas to rejuvenate, most recently Baxter State Park where I was inspired by watching moose.
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Artist Statement Full Text
I seek to better understand and accept my own mortality by researching the greater life cycles that occur on our planet and to understand my existence as a single organism that helps to sustain this cycle. My current paintings focus on this energy cycle, specifically the story of North American wildlife.
After extensive research into behavior, diet and anatomy, I playfully reorganize my perception of these animals organic and interpretative drawing. In final pieces, I use watercolor and ink on cotton, mylar and polypropylene paper. I am currently working on two bodies of work, “Animal Herds” and “Animal Eats”.
“Animal Herds” is a mobile installation piece of hundreds of small cut out animal paintings that are assembled in the life size forms of wolves. The wolf is made of the animals that it eats, including deer, caribou, moose, musk oxen, bison, mice and many others. Each animal is painted on Mylar with radiant color bleeds in fluid ink, which is countered by the specificity of the cut animal shape. It investigates the idea of the predator and prey relationship and how the energy from the prey lives on through the predator when it is consumed. The piece can change each time it is installed, therefore becoming a new form of existence for each installation.
“Animal Eats” are watercolor paintings that depict the animals surrounded by their natural food. Watercolor fascinates me; the way the water moves the pigment as it settles onto the paper and how my mark making is fused and altered by the tracks that water leaves behind. This adds another level of life to my work in the final product and during the process, as I become both spectator and conductor of this medium. The fragility of the paper lends another layer of transience to each piece. The process of movement, mark making, tracks and transience echo the lives of the animals that I depict.
Animals are directly connected and affected by the rhythms of nature. These rhythms exist from the molecular to the cosmic level, a cycle of birth, life, death, birth and infinitely on. We are all part of this greater cycle. I hope to pass on a deep respect for the complex tale of survival of animals that eat, mate and forage in the wild.
I live and work in Jamaica Plain, MA (a neighborhood of Boston) and grew up in Newton, New Hampshire. In 2007, I received a BFA from Massachusetts College of Art. My love of nature stems from my childhood, spending summers camping and hiking and winters skiing. I continue to travel to natural areas to rejuvenate, most recently Baxter State Park where I was inspired by watching moose.
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Artist Statement Full Text
I seek to better understand and accept my own mortality by researching the greater life cycles that occur on our planet and to understand my existence as a single organism that helps to sustain this cycle. My current paintings focus on this energy cycle, specifically the story of North American wildlife.
After extensive research into behavior, diet and anatomy, I playfully reorganize my perception of these animals organic and interpretative drawing. In final pieces, I use watercolor and ink on cotton, mylar and polypropylene paper. I am currently working on two bodies of work, “Animal Herds” and “Animal Eats”.
“Animal Herds” is a mobile installation piece of hundreds of small cut out animal paintings that are assembled in the life size forms of wolves. The wolf is made of the animals that it eats, including deer, caribou, moose, musk oxen, bison, mice and many others. Each animal is painted on Mylar with radiant color bleeds in fluid ink, which is countered by the specificity of the cut animal shape. It investigates the idea of the predator and prey relationship and how the energy from the prey lives on through the predator when it is consumed. The piece can change each time it is installed, therefore becoming a new form of existence for each installation.
“Animal Eats” are watercolor paintings that depict the animals surrounded by their natural food. Watercolor fascinates me; the way the water moves the pigment as it settles onto the paper and how my mark making is fused and altered by the tracks that water leaves behind. This adds another level of life to my work in the final product and during the process, as I become both spectator and conductor of this medium. The fragility of the paper lends another layer of transience to each piece. The process of movement, mark making, tracks and transience echo the lives of the animals that I depict.
Animals are directly connected and affected by the rhythms of nature. These rhythms exist from the molecular to the cosmic level, a cycle of birth, life, death, birth and infinitely on. We are all part of this greater cycle. I hope to pass on a deep respect for the complex tale of survival of animals that eat, mate and forage in the wild.
