Visual Art – Richmond
In elementary school, I used the needles of beach pines to create chains at recess. I remember mushing pokeweed berries and using the bright magenta juice as paint. I sculpted mud, sand, sticks, snow - whatever I could get my hands on. It makes perfect sense that I’d wind up here: in my twenties, still exploring new ways to use natural materials to create art.
Of course, none of the things I made years ago lasted. While that frustrated me as a child, now it’s what I love most about natural materials. I can’t negotiate the way time brings change and decay. I consider biodegradation as essential to my artistic process as the clay, hand-made paper and flowers that I typically work with. What I create takes on a life of it’s own as it changes with time. My role is to intervene and celebrate the life these materials have.