Someone’s at the Door (2024)
Mixed
12 x 18 x 1

Owl appeared at the door, looking for the Someone with the audacity to knock loudly, disturbing her slumber. Her home, the most sacred of trees in the forest, welcomed her with peaceful presence – a friend she lived inside and treasured. Who is this Someone at my door?

Owl opened the door. I have been looking for you and the portal forever, the Someone said. Can you take me with you? Owl looked skeptical; how could this Being become part of her world? Why did you come to this tree in search of me, really? Owl asked. I don’t know exactly, the Someone responded. I was compelled to find you, whatever the cost. It has taken me a lifetime.

Owl stood in front of the entrance, part guard, part Shaman, partly wiling. There is no warm welcome here, the Someone thought with disappointment borne from decades of searching. Owl is a bit scary; she’s strong, with an edge that pierces my being. Why did I come here? Where is it I need to go? I just know I need to take this leap. I have dreamed of this Owl, this tree, and this portal. I must step into this unknown.

Museum of the Sunflower (2023)
Mixed
42 x 39

This painting shows a single sunflower preserved in a glass box on display in a museum. Flanking this image are remnants collected carefully amidst the ruin. Imagine: sunflowers have disappeared from our ecosystem. Gone are the glorious fields of yellow sunflowers, gone are the sunflower seeds sustaining people, birds, and critters, gone is the joy they brought to our lives – all that is left is the memory of what was lost.

The single sunflower, painstakingly preserved for all to see, still emanates its beauty. Yet, for her it is too late to propagate. She stands tall as a relic of a time passed.

This piece serves as a cautionary tale - what we do now to preserve the beauty and interconnectedness of our ecosystem matters for our children and generations to come.

Branching (2020)
Mixed
30 x 35

I created this self portrait as a celebration of the branching interconnected nature of all living things. We are branching beings springing from arteries and veins, roots and shoots, brooks and streams – all diverting into the river flow of life. While trees send their roots deep into one place, spreading their seeds randomly from that place, as humans, we move across the land carrying our life-sustaining arteries and veins as a mobile deeply-interconnected web of evolution. My soul yearns to keep branching out, continuing to discover the essence of this pattern and form.

The image was made via photography, printmaking, and wood burning on brown underlayment paper.