As a female growing older in a society that worships youthfulness, I have often reflected upon my changing appearance. Sometimes my exploration combines printmaking and my personal history of sewing my own clothes.
Written On the Body draws inspiration from a Jeanette Winterson poem: “Written on the body is a secret code only visible in certain lights: the accumulation of a lifetime gather there.”
Two layers of gampi paper printed with skin texture are loosely sewn together into an 18" x 32" shift form with suture-like stitches at the neck and armholes. The legibility of the quote fluctuates depending upon lighting, the viewer’s perspective, and the proximity of the layers to one another, so much like the complex interplay of interior and exterior realities as we age.
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Hands are an extension of ourselves and present a revealing portrait of what we do and what we have experienced. This exploration of the natural cycle of life and my own aging played with the landscape of older skin, how nature can become integrated within our identity and gesture.
These digital prints are effective in all sizes, including 17" x 22" and 24" x 30", however the displayed size of 44" x 68" feels both strong and heroic.
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How are we viewed and how do we view ourselves as we get older? Re-framing aging can shine a light on its potential beauty, promote more authentic aging narratives and celebrate the richness inherent in ordinary life.
Five individuals share their perspectives about aging in this 3-channel video installation. Their varied insights encourage viewers to reconsider their assumptions about what to expect when aging, envision new outlooks and empower wider possibilities. (To view a sample clip, just click on an individual's image.)
At each installation, viewers are encouraged to reflect and contribute their thoughts to a display, or participate in creating a response video.
With grateful thanks to my collaborator, Derek McNeill, TRTN Film (not shown). Featured speakers included (from top): William, age 82; Celeste, age 77; Mary, age 65; Michael, age 68; and Susanne, age 72. Mary sings: "Everything Must Change" by Benard Ighner, © Universal Music Publishing Group.
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A 70-year-old friend wrote a haunting haiku about how it feels to be growing older in a youth-obsessed society:
grey streaks, pallid cheeks
she seeks eyes that will see a
vanishing woman
This actual-sized, 18" x 32" dress sewn of Japanese silk gampi paper printed with skin textures and lines of poetry investigates how it feels to grow older in a culture that equates youth with beauty and visibility.
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Investigations of the connection between gesture and nature resulted in a precisely-crafted flag book. As the book is opened, pages flip across the center, the hand image transforming in perfect alignment with the leaf as the pages are stretched to the maximum 72" length. When closed, the book measures 8" x 10" and is intimate, demonstrative of connection and transition, and interactively portrays the “multiplicity” within identity.
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Leaves serve as vessels of life and memory, veined like skin on older hands, with surfaces that record and display signs of their life journey. Each year they appear, disappear, then replicate in the coming season.
For me, leaves and cocoon-like forms are a simile and strong metaphor. They signify “potential,” metamorphosis, natural cycles, personal regeneration and transformation.
The installation activated an 8' x 8' space, with shadows created by directional lighting dancing on adjacent walls.
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In the Iliad, Homer used leaves to express how individuals are engaged in a natural, perpetual, cyclical chain of life: “Like the generations of leaves, the lives of mortal men. Now the wind scatters the old leaves across the earth, now the living timber bursts with the new buds and spring comes round again. And so with men: as one generation comes to life, another dies away.”
Collages include sewn prints, gampi paper chiné-colle, hand-coloring and other found materials. Final sizes are approximately 19" x 22 for the vertical pieces and 19" x 48" for the horizontal triptych.
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This artist book is comprised of haikus written by women of various ages musing on appearance (skin) versus how internal perspectives (deep), often expressing how being the subject of “the male gaze” interacts with female self perception. Each 4" x 4" page features two haikus from the same woman: the exterior verse reads from one orientation and their interior haiku reads from the opposite so the book can be read one way or the other for different perspectives.
Pages are sutured together, emulating the stitching together of the wounds or the joining of the community of women, a community often divided by consequences of “the male gaze” and subsequent effects on self perception and female competition.
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Ruminations on multiple cancer screenings resulted in a collage series on nine 8" x 10" canvas board using torn etchings, found materials and Japanese papers, transfers, magazine remnants, acrylic paint.
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This ongoing series of etchings of scenes in Discovery Park, Seattle, WA, is fueled by both my deep appreciation of nature’s cycles and my fascination with the wear and tear of aging architectural surfaces.
Each 10" x 13" image is printed on a generous parent sheet to fit into a 16" x 20" frame. There are additional prints in this series not shown on website: contact me for more information.
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Fragments can become entire stories. I am strongly drawn to the intimacy of the book form, the way the book can distill content over time, and the fascinating consideration of inclusion within linear versus non-linear narratives. My “books” explore both traditional and non-traditional forms.
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