This body of work seeks to explore the emotional, intellectual, and spiritual impact of wild places on what it means to be human, and the dichotomy between this and the necessity to preserve wild places from human impact.  Using cyanotype processes on raw fabric, in conjunction with natural dyes from sustainably collected materials, along with traditional painting processes, this body of work is largely created on-location in wilderness zones.

As a 2023 recipient of the Victor Thomas Jacoby award, I will have the opportunity to deepen the possibilities of this body of work. While previously I have created work at a variety of locations, I am now focusing on one specific site – an undisclosed location, 16 miles in, off-trail, in the Eastern Sierras of California. This location has been a backcountry home for my family for over 40 years, and both my grandfather’s and mother’s ashes were spread at this site. My plan is to make multiple trips to this location, and hire local packers to take in my supplies, so that I can experiment with making work on a large scale. It is essential to my concept that the works be completed primarily on site. There is a lack of control to this process, and the necessity to trust in the collaborative experience of working with nature, in nature.  From this standpoint, this process is highly experimental, and highly conceptual in its dependence upon elements such as sun intensity, wind, heat, and objects and materials available at the time of the visit.

As I return to these places to make art, I see my work reflecting a stylistic homage to Icon painting, and my intention is for the viewer to experience them in the same way, as relics of sacred spaces. Inspired and painted by the objects themselves, infused with the earthly essence of natural dyes, and highlighted with gold, this work will become an experiential installation of windows: my Blueprints to the Wilderness.