I am a botanical sculptor who works with digital media to inspire personal intimacy, or “kinship,” with nature. I hand-harvest materials to highlight the instinct required to know what to take, how to take, and what to leave alone. I then process the material myself, carefully dehydrating, grinding, preserving, or distilling, to maximize the use of smaller sample sizes. My work takes the form of both installation and hand-made object, reflecting both perspectives of the relationship: the installations as the land’s perspective and the objects as my own. Inspired by my experience living off-grid for two years in a forest in Texas, USA, my conceptual themes focus on how our species goes from the process of inspiration to creating monuments. I also focus on methods from the pasts for environmental futures, understanding nature as both subject and material, and reawakening that personal intimacy with nature that has been lost through domestication.
