A solo exhibition of new work inspired by lichen and symbiosis

 

Before my family retreated from the flood prone tidelands of the Tsetsibus shoreline in Port Hadlock to the woodlands of Marrowstone Island, my paintings series Light Hours focused on changing light on sea and sky over seasons of time. Now, in the woods, the green light of the forest fills my eyes and my attention. I have turned from the horizon to focus on the microcosm of plants and minutiae of forest lichen.

 

Thousands of species of lichen can be  found in the Northwest on twigs, logs, rocks, walls, and statues, in an amazing variety of forms and colors. Neither plant nor animal, lichen are a unique life form, a reciprocal community of algae and fungi. Mesmerized by these communities, I began transforming minute observations of lichen into layers of vibrant gestures using paint, mixed media, and my own abstract visual language. My prints are etched with ferric chloride on copper plates. I experiment with non-toxic techniques to create texture using household ingredients like coffee, sand paper, sugar, and snack chip bags. Often, I purposely let the edges of my plates corrode, yielding an organic edge. While traditionally the etched metal plates can withstand the pressure of multiple printings to create editions of identical numbered prints, I enjoy playing with colored ink in combination with monotypes, stencils, or mixed media, more often producing one of a kind original prints.

 

In my new exhibition, Synergia, I’m compelled to express the profound symbiotic relationship that I feel is missing in our human world, which has been expressed for eons in the microworld of lichen.

Lichen are beings who are more than the sum of their parts, a comingling of wonder living in community. Might they teach us about an imaginable un-hierarchical world of peace and beauty? Could we humans dare to turn our darkness into an epiphany? Can we venture into a world where we live together and find solutions to harmonize with each other and our planet?