Living on a 37′ sailboat for three years granted me the opportunity to take a closer look at the wind, tide, weather, and my impact on the plants and animals that share these environments. While traveling up and down the southeastern coast of the United States, I saw countless eco-systems operating and interacting with the same set of larger elements in both similar and drastically different ways. From oysters relying on the tide to filter water systems in the Chesapeake Bay, to osprey in the Lowcountry of South Carolina using wind currents to travel between small and large bodies of water while hunting fish. In North Carolina, I saw a black bear on the banks of a canal in the early morning hours, and on a sail from the Exumas to Eleuthera in the Bahamas, a sea turtle as big as a Volkswagon. After a frightening experience offshore in a bad electrical storm, living more or less without heating or AC, without a refrigerator for six months, and many other such luxuries, I developed a greater appreciation for the survival skills that these plants and animals possess and their greater understanding of the “real” world. These experiences have illuminated the fine line between life and death, a balanced system and an unbalanced one, and how small changes in these environmental elements can have big effects.
My artwork is a collection of imagery drawn from eco-systems that I come in contact with daily or during my travels. The imagery is combined into designs examining the complexity and diversity of surrounding eco-systems. I draw, print, and paint nature-inspired, line-driven imagery onto wood, paper, and fabric. My drawings are made from experiences and photographs collected outside and focus on the details of each unique plant, animal, or environmental element. I aim to visualize interactions within ecosystems and emphasize human connections to the natural world by layering the drawings into larger compositions. These compositions are compiled digitally into designs, which are then screen-printed onto wood, paper, or fabric. My wood panel paintings are then hand-painted with dyes and finished to draw out the natural grain of the wood. Each piece is a contained environment that comments on such themes as natural order, inter-dependence, balance, evolution, and environmental issues. I am always striving to generate a greater understanding of the natural world that surrounds me.