Simultaneously experiencing new motherhood and the pandemic necessitated more idiosyncratic and intuitive ways of working, creating raw, anxious, awkward, colorful and tender forms. Following sketches and watercolors, I work in intervals over long periods of time in the studio to make intricate shapes, hard edges, and marbled spills. The flat surfaces made inside reveal how different color fibers reconnect without the addition of pigments or dyes to create new colors.
For work made outside in the elements, I press pulped fabrics by hand against hard surfaces around my home studio like brick walls and concrete floors. Leaving the pressed pulp outside to dry for up to a week, it forms imperfect textures and lifts detritus like dirt and flecks of brick. This work considers what we choose to reveal and conceal, and tests the malleability and strength of rag paper to listen, absorb, and hold.
This work is all hand formed paper made from different color repurposed, torn and pulped bedsheets and t-shirts. No additional pigments or dyes.
Photo credit: Henrik Kam