2023-2024
In fall of 2023 I began my MFA degree in visual art at Colorado State University. My work continues to use homemade natural dyes and inks and I've shifted to working primarily on cotton and silk fibers. Still using black ballpoint pen, my newest work attempts to combine figuration and nature in order to investigate several themes. I am interested in the commodification of the female body and the violence perpetrated against women. I've found that there are parallels between how women are carelessly objectified, battered and used and how humans thoughtlessly abuse the natural world and it's resources. Additionally, I've begun to explore how energy moves through ecosystems and how this dynamic food web results in both decay and new life concurrently.
Picea pungens
Ball point pen and dye made from blue spruce needles on Arches hot press 140 lb. watercolor paper
22 x 30"
Prunus pensylvanica
Ball point pen and dye made from pin cherries and sandstone on balsa wood panel
60 x 22"
Carya glabra
Ball point pen and dye made from pignut hickory bark on Arches cold press 140 lb watercolor paper
22 x 30"
Liriodendron tulipifera
Ball point pen and dye made from persimmons, yellow poplar leaves, and poke berries on raw silk
28 x 33"
Liriodendron tulipifera II
Ball point pen and dye made of persimmons and yellow tulip poplar leaves on raw silk and translucent rayon
approximately 28 x 36"
Vaccinium angustifolium
Ball point pen and dye made of wild blueberries and pignut hickories on Crepe de Chine
150 x 32"
Vaccinium oxycoccos
Ball point pen, dye made from wild cranberries, and embroidery floss on unprimed cotton backing and translucent rayon
55 x 30"
Symplocarpus foetidus
Ball point pen, silk dyed with golden beets, muslin dyed with skunk cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus), cardboard dyed with pignut hickory bark dye
Juglans nigra
Ball point pen and ink made from black walnut bark on three panels of cardboard
Phaseolus vulgaris
Ball point pen and dye made from black beans on raw cotton muslin ecoprinted with bean pods; with drawn thread and ruching
30 x 47"
Beta vulgaris
Black and blue ball point pen and dye on linen ecoprinted with beet slices with translucent rayon, blue embroidery thread, and ruching
34 x 42"
Diverge
Ball point pen and colored pencil on raw muslin with drawn thread
37 x 28"
Diverge II
Ball point pen and colored pencil on cotton synthetic blend with drawn thread
37 x 28"
Iris versicolor
Ball point and dye made from purple irises on Strathmore Bristol vellum
22 x 30"
Prunus serotina
Ball point pen and dye made from black cherry on Arches hot press 140 lb watercolor paper
22 x 30"
Melanoplus differentialis
Ball point pen and dye made from dried and ground locusts on two MDF board panels
24 x 98"
Cypherotylus californicus
Ball point pen and dye made from Colorado fungus species
22 x 30"