Symbiont, 2026, Watercolor and gesso on dur-a-lar, moss and lichen encased in resin, antique shaving mirror (seen here installed with Offerings and Turtle Embroidery at 21C Bentonville)

Lichens are a symbiotic relationships between algae and fungus which together create a being of such interdependence it is almost a hybrid of the two.  In this work, the lichens also exist alongside mosses and the decomposing sticks from trees, creating an environment where each nourishes the other.  This mutuality is inspiring for our own hopes to live with the more than human world in ways that create more connection and less dislocation. 

However, I also hope the way this work echoes naturalists and collecting practices of the past, via the echoes of specimens trapped in amber and replicated in natural history illustrations.  Those practices of preserving were a different order of preservation, focusing on specimens and amassing knowledge, a different type of preservation from that which we hope to engage in today.  At tension with the interdependence of living-together-ness which embodies our current preservation goals.