Seeking Home
Depicting birds, common symbols of the spirit, and their nests, or temporary homes, have become a way for me to talk about the human spirit’s futile search for an ephemeral home in this material plane. Just as birds leave their nests season after season, the spirit must migrate to the higher dimensional when its life is over. Try as we might, turmoil is as common as peace in this earthly plane, as many of the drawings depict.
These are works on paper and the paper itself, having undergone its own process of deterioration, underscores the themes of life’s ephemeral nature I bury the paper in a shallow bed in order for the particular nature of the ground to make its impression. The worms eat holes in its surface, the rain breaks down the fibers, and the earth leaves stains and marks on the paper. After nature has left its mark, I remove the paper from its makeshift grave and draw or redraw the images of the surrounding flora and fauna upon its newly weathered surface.