Downed Power is a site-specific installation conceived and realized in the remote ghost town of Cisco, Utah. The structure stands resolute in the vast landscape, a tenuous assemblage of splintered pieces salvaged from original wooden structures, held together by a network of reflective threads.
The function of the piece remains mysterious, encouraging a nod towards science fiction in massive scale and akimbo stance while remaining tactile and familiar in shape. Architecturally Downed Power mirrors the ubiquitous electrical lines that often connect even the most isolated areas, their tensile forms and state of patchy upkeep and disarray. By day the piece blends in with the surrounding landscape of crumbling buildings and flimsy power structures. By night the stabilizing threads reveal their reflective properties and formulaic geometry, offering a fantastical surprise and wholly alternative viewing of the piece.
When regarding the installation, it is important to consider the year it was created. 2020: a year of social and political turmoil, loss of control, vast confusion and isolation for many around the world. Downed Power seeks to reflect upon an overwhelming sense of being unmoored and torn down, countering with a symbolic glimpse of the threads that support society and the psyche with subtle resistance.
Made of repurposed ripstop, canvas and cotton panels, Cisco sunshades are musings on the color palettes and geometric landscapes of rural America and the crumbling architectural forms that dot the terrain.
These objects also serve a utilitarian purpose, portable weather-resistant shade structures that can be taken on the move.
Developed and installed on location in the ghost town of Cisco in northeast Utah. Talking from the Ground Up uses Hemplime as an experimental sculptural material. Comprised of hemp hurd, lime, kaolin clay powder, water and natural oxide pigments, Hemplime was cast into soft tarp molds to emulate the mesas and painted hills of remote Utah on a micro scale. As hemplime cures it absorbs CO2, the full process can take up to 80 years. These experimental forms are a gift to the insects and small creature residents of the ghost town, made of natural materials that will aid the air for years to come and influence larger-scale building projects toward a more sustainable future.
Talking from the Ground Up was created during the Home of the Brave residency in Cisco, UT.
Co-designed and built with Evan Murphy during a residency at Art Farm in Marquette, Nebraska. Cloud Pavilion is intended as a place for quiet reflection, equally welcoming the humans, insects and creatures of the prairie. The roof, based on traditional Shaker basket weaving styles of my native New England, was a first foray into adapting the scale of a traditional craft technique to suit an architectural form. In an effort to create a structure unique to its intended landscape, the bulk of materials were locally salvaged and often influencing the design itself. Railroad ties, broken farm equipment and scraps from fallen barns made the structure while we processed and wove with recycled grain bags, a ubiquitous material in rural Nebraska.
Quilting the Angeles is an exploration into site-specific textile design and quilting in the Angeles National Forest, which hugs Los Angeles and Pasadena to the north.
After extensive research and documentation, three distinct locations were chosen as inspiration. A quilt was created for each, referencing colors, textures, shapes and memories.
A series of four quilting circles were held throughout the creation process, as well as several informal events. These gatherings were open to all in Pasadena public parks, works in progress were shown and attendees were able to see an in-progress quilt on a quilting frame (also hand-made by the artist). Participants were encouraged to try the act of topstitching and discuss creative practices. Once finished, the quilts were photographed in the locations that originally inspired them.
This project was made possible in part by an Arts and Culture Grant from the City of Pasadena.
An ongoing project exploring traditional methods of quilting, piecework, printing and dye work to create reflections of chosen landscapes.
Digital Windows references the intent to extract color, texture and form from a specific landscape and ‘digitize’ it through a very analog craft process, breaking concepts down to individual bits, joining them together again to create portals or windows into a perceived essence of a space.
Thinking about getting lost, how fires spread, embracing chaos in the process of change.
A View From Above was created as a reflection on the state of the planet, specifically in response to the escalating numbers of wild fires and the resulting alteration of Earth’s appearance and natural cycles. These cast Rockite objects were made through a process of meditation on the patterns visible from great heights and the changing landscapes that humans inhabit as well as our ongoing impact upon them.
made while in residency at Art Farm in Marquette, Nebraska.
Fractal Clouds are installations that play with geometric structure, shifting light and tensile strength.
copper and bamboo.
video here.
B+W photo by Danae Lagoy.
Tiny Cowgirl is an ongoing personality performance. She may be small but she’s not afraid to talk some sense!
All props made by the artist.
