Artist Statement:

The works in this exhibition evolve a visual vocabulary for transformation and growth that ranges in scale from the cellular to the cosmic. Along the way, these acrylic ink paintings on raw birch, aspen, and basswood take their form from the grain of the wood itself, revealing landscapes caught in the veneers of plywood - their flayed open tree rings creating a literal map of the history of water - and mandala-like designs present on the surface of a tree slice. Delving deep into pattern language and the magic of iteration, these works are at once intimate and vast, abstract and specific, featuring large washes of wild color and areas of obsessive detail rendered with great precision in pen and ink. From roots and eggs to rivers and rays, the imagery of these paintings call forth an abstracted natural world that feels archetypal or dreamlike in its beauty, reminding us of something primordial and strange. 

The pieces are deeply informed by my investigations of Pagan spirituality and the lifeways of my distant ancestors. In small doses, the works include fragments of the human world, from rows of small squares to arrows and geometric lines, reminding us that no place on earth exists quite outside the reach of human intervention. In this process, the works examine the human relationship to seasons and cycles of growth, with particular attention to the wisdom and resilience of plant life, recalling something ancient that might give us a hunch how to live into the future.