Statement

Tensioned silk cantilevered over viewers in a gallery demonstrates pressurization within a Ponderosa pine as it pumps water up against the force of gravity. Robotic sails translate changes in wind speed along the trunk of a pine into the gallery. Quilted paintings echo the slow labor of peatland mosses as they manufacture an artificial water table.

My practice combines digital sensing technology, such as bio-data sonification, and analog processes including painting with ink I make from locally-sourced plant matter. The materials used in the piece add another layer of data. I make visual and sonic compositions in collaboration with plants and airborne- and soil-dwelling microbes. These visual scores play with the idea of a painting as data to be read or performed, with non-human agents as composers. 

My studio research combines experimental art and ecological science to explore the mechanics of plant physiology, soil health, and our relationship with microbial life. When public understanding of ecological problems is limited, creative artists have been historically successful in uncovering background narratives, shaping how scientifically declared emergencies are perceived and acted upon.