My creative research shares the layered histories of specific locations: from the geologic forces that shaped the land, to impacts of indigenous communities and Western colonialism, to the current practices of development, destruction, and restoration by the communities I interact with every day. Through first-hand exploration of the visible and invisible marks of human hands on the landscape and a research practice rooted in investigation of local archives and conversations with community members, I explore our relationships with landscapes over time.
Bodies of water often act as anchors for my creative investigation: I focus my research on how they have been altered artificially and naturally. The resulting artworks emphasize the magnitude of these changes across time. My work has explored the impact of commercial agriculture and flood control on waterways in the Midwest, and the ecological impacts of wetland destruction in the Northeast. I call attention to how human actions and climate change are altering our current environment, and create a space for mourning and reflection on the environments that are already irrevocably altered beyond repair. As I respond directly to the environment in which I am situated, my work examines and critiques representations of place throughout history, forefronting the current state of human-driven climate change.
Whether my work is drawn, etched, or digitally constructed it highlights a careful, human fragility that stems from the unbalanced ecosystems we have created for ourselves. I question the sustainability of our current policies and actions within cycles of development and destruction of the landscape. By combining my research-based and labor-intensive practices to draw familiar landscapes in exaggerated forms, I reconsider how the physical manifestation of our surroundings have come to reflect our disregard towards them– and ask the viewer to reflect on their own actions in order to imagine an alternative shared future.