Artist Statement

Uniting natural and manufactured materials in creative ritual, I transform what I have on hand into what I need to exist. What I have are materials gathered from the land, such as natural dye plants and rocks of pigment. I also have an accumulation of used textiles and paper from domestic family life. What I need is support and clarity to engage in community building for climate justice, shifting culture towards collective flourishing. As a textile artist, I repurpose fabric, yarn, and thread that encode personal history of use and inheritance. Overdyed with garden dye plants, the textiles become renewed and can be pieced back together in abstract collages through which I explore my dreams and intentions for the future. I also combine handmade watercolor paint, ink, and charcoal with repurposed paper and textiles to visualize how humans can move towards a future of care and reciprocity with one another and the more than human world. The foundation of my work is tending a permaculture food forest garden that provides a local color palette, space for natural dyeing with solar energy, and a physical connection to the shifting rhythms of our changing climate.