UNDERSTORY is an ode to a place that simply still exists; it is a meditative,
emotional and visual study of the natural environment where I live and work, in southeastern Vermont. The world below the canopy of the trees, the understory, is teeming with life and decay. The layers of raw materials become deep
inspiration for my imagery and approach to creating my art. The work is comprised of many layers of papers, monoprints, paints, and various organic materials, such as wax, powdered pigments, dried grasses, branches, carbon, ash, silver leaf, marble dust and clay. Evocative of forest underlayers, the imagery alludes to entangled, interconnected webs of trees, branches, membranes, neural networks, flowing springs, as well as the infinite night sky of Vermont. The understory can also be utilized in a literary sense; it is the architecture that undergirds, gives meaning to, and supports a story. Like the world below the canopy, it is moveable and fluid. In addition to the physical environment, my work reflects the expansive, psychological experience of space. Exploring the terrain and its impact on my relationship to the environment, I create pictorial references to textures, branches, decay, and growth, all woven together to form a depiction of my outer and inner landscape. The media I use functions as my personal vocabulary of expression, as proxy to emotional states of mind. I consciously work with materials that help to facilitate a sense of light, darkness, mystery and possibility.