Through a field-based practice, I employ drawings, prints, and written reflections to create site-responsive investigations into a place defined by enormous transformations. I was born in Alaska and grew up in Bethel; while I have lived in many places as an adult, I return to Alaska to revisit familiar places and discover new sites for creative exploration, most recently on a kayak trip through the Beardslee Islands. This work examines the interactions among biological, geological, and anthropological factors that continue to sculpt Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve in Southeastern Alaska. The shorelines and waterways of Glacier Bay are altered through the twice daily changing of the tides, but on a more geological scale, the rising of both the land and sea reforms the landscape itself, as tidewater glaciers retreat up the mountains. As the weight of the ice no longer compresses the land, the rocky shore moves incrementally upward, bringing with it things often hidden below the water. Those rocks, algae, and other intertidal creatures are revealed at the margin of the sea when low tides are the lowest.
The islands are always above the sea, and these seemingly disconnected landmasses break the surface of glassy water to form landmarks for boats to navigate safely through the bay. The drawings of islands position the human adventurer as a key observer through whose presence we contextualize the landscape. While the transformation of Glacier Bay is easily observable, it is not unique, and the changes effected upon it are echoed in diverse climate conditions throughout the world.
Color
2016, lithograph, cyanotype, 11 x 15 inches
Red Lines
2016, lithograph, 11 x 15 inches
Tidewater Mapping
2016, watercolor, graphite, 52 x 90 inches
Barnacle Studies V
2016, watercolor on Arches, 7 x 10 inches
Barnacle Studies IV
2016, watercolor on Arches, 7 x 10 inches
Barnacle Studies I
2016, watercolor on Arches, 7 x 10 inches
Signal
2016, photogravure, monoprint on Pescia, 20 x 15 inches, with Joseph Mougel
Reflections
2016, photogravure, chine collé, monoprint on Pescia, 20 x 15 inches
Subtidal Grove
2016, cyanotype, screenprint on Hosho, leather cord, rocks, variable dimensions up to 14 feet tall