Cardinal, 2022, watercolor and acrylic on pergamenata, tissue, 11 x 14", currently in collection of Historic Arkansas Museum

This work, Cardinal, is part of the Synanthropes series that focuses on animals and plants that live near human areas but are not domesticated.  The watercolor painting pairs presence and absence, evoking the contemplation of the deceased animal which itself is both present and absent.  Contemplating the dead as present and absent is in response to in the history of picturing dead animals in hunting trophy imagery, in still life paintings, or as alive in natural history works which were created from taxidermy specimens.

Synanthropes, also termed urban wildlife, are animals and plants which live next to humans, without becoming domesticated. This series looks at evidence of these animals through their bodies, whether decaying or whole, as they can be encountered in our urban-wildlife areas. Death is often an overlooked part of life, and it is a regenerative part of ecosystems, including urban wildlife areas. These animals died of undetermined causes, not necessarily from living near humans. This lack of human direct agency in their death differs from the history of picturing dead animals in hunting trophy imagery, in still life paintings, or as animated in natural history works created from taxidermy specimens.

Nature Is a Haunted House

“Nature is a Haunted House— but Art— a House that tries to be haunted.”

- Emily Dickinson (1876 letter to Thomas Higginson)

Nature is a Haunted House is a series of installation works that incorporate painting, drawing, found objects, sculpture, insect and plant material, and decorative objects.

The works in Nature Is a Haunted House focus on places where the wild and domestic get mingled: the rough edges of the suburban yard, urban animals in human-dominated spaces, the borders of wild parkland. In such spaces, natural and man-made get jumbled, and the thriving, living elements adapt and assert themselves, so that the notion of an inherently pure nature set aside and “out there” becomes eroded. Instead, nature is here, next door, underfoot, and within reach.

The show features animal, insect, and plant life that exists near humans, with both unfortunate and beneficial outcomes. These works are informed by the slow, accumulated examination of the wild and domestic life on North Mountain in the Hot Springs National Park where I live and work. Each piece is an attempt to fix and capture an intimate experience of this permeable boundary between the natural and the human.

A Small Piece of Turf, 2019, watercolor, colored pencil, gesso, dura-lar, grass plant in resin, table 

Preservation Series, colored pencil and resin, 2022

Mortal Objects, 2018, colored pencil on dura-lar and paper, antique boxes, insects (harvested post-mortem), wisteria pod, tulip petals, tanned opossum skin, thread

Offerings, 2018, vintage pillow, gesso, oil, acrylic, raccoon taxidermy mounts, waxed thread, lace, beads

Carna Herba, 2019, watercolor, paper, air-dry clay, acrylic, shelf, bottle, water

Turtle Embroidery, 2019, cotton yarn, turtle shell, video, embroidery hoop, vinyl fabric, mirror stand

Syphon,  2019, colored pencil on dura-lar, monofilament, shelf, fabric, antique urinal, antique basin