The Earth, worn.

Suspended prints on view in 2016 at the Joe McCauley Art Gallery of Heartland Community College in Normal, IL.

The Earth, worn.

We are woven into a delicate layer of this earth’s lengthy life, a seam in time. How can I tap into the rich history of the past and listen to what it has to say? How has the past revealed itself to me, and what are the larger truths of this discovery? As an artist, my response is understood visually through making seemingly disparate notions feel connected, even dependent on one another.

The Earth, worn. relies on the metaphor of the draped kimono to depict a feminine beauty and intrigue as a layer waiting to be unveiled or simply reserved. Covered in images of land and sky, the kimonos become a channel of analogy: we wear the earth, and the earth wears us. 

I am striving for the knowledge of the old. I am extracting the poetic observance and artistic practice of artists such as Botticelli (Italian-1400s), Hokusai (Japanese-1800s), and Frankenthaler (Jewish American-1900s) through my own voice. My hope is to bring this knowledge and language into a contemporary conversation on how we record, interpret and interact with our natural surroundings and the history laden within these surroundings. 

The titles of each suspension includes the artist and title of the imagery referenced in recognition of the artists pursuits passed down to future generations.