How does one provide a visual response to what is below the surface? In my work, I am assuming the techniques of an archaeologist—digging into the past, the earth, and my own psyche. The examination of my own history is a process of discovery; excavating experiences of identity and psychological smothering. In nature, humans are also erasing geographic “identities” through excessive development, and lack of concern for ecological issues. These themes are further explored through printmaking, paintings and artists' books.

I began to build visual narratives using photography as my weapon of choice. Finding my personal voice was key to connecting my understanding of place and identity. 

 

"Origins and Endings"was created by etching into copper and polymer plates, layering and scraping away paint on both paper and printmaking plate. This process allowed me to take control of my past, scrape away at what I decide to reveal and conceal.

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Activist and art critic Lucy Lippard uses the term “topographical intimacy” to describe the layering of experience that occurs when one lives in a place for a long time and become intimate with it through long usage and passage. She considers palimpsest, the scraping off text,  a useful term to convey how our many experiences of place layer and partially cover over previous experiences, building on but also erasing them, so that as time passes, it is difficult to excavate one incident, one view, from another.

 

The work embodies my desire to understand why we continue to exploit nature and the body with disregard to the environment.  I excavate my surroundings in attempt to reveal the earth’s past, my past, vulnerable to experiences of time.