Studio Notes. December 2025
Small studies of elements that are a part of new work I am developing. These are just documentation shots I took with my phone.
I am developing new work, a new series called Dream Flowers. I am noticing in the process of developing this work that it requires that I sit with it and listen to it in a way that is different from previous work. There is a lot of waiting that is happening with this new work. I wait because sometimes my next step has not yet been revealed to me. I wait because the materials require me to take a pause between layers. I wait because I have to learn or build the next thing in the process before I can go on to the next step. Though not typically my strong suit, waiting has surprisingly become a part of the work that I have learned to enjoy. It has allowed me to drop deeper into my practice and the layers of research, thinking and reflecting before acting that my work requires of me. This has brought a new pace and rhythm to my work along with a greater reverence for stillness. The stillness, the waiting, like quiet for me, is active. In these moments, what I call the between moments or moments where I have started but not yet begun, I find myself traversing mental maps and geographies going to new places in my work but also revisiting old places and seeing them anew. Dream Flowers is about rememories of previous stories that continue to be present with us.
Five years ago when we were in the depths of a global lockdown l created Dreams and Reckonings from remnants of supplies I had shelved in the makeshift studio in my basement. Unable to go to my NE DC studio where my paints and canvases were, I turned to paper, markers and pencils at home because home is always where I draw. What I also found to my delight were some squares of wood and about 4 cans of ink from previous attempts at printmaking which at the time I thought I hated. In that moment however, printmaking seemed like the perfect way to convey what I was thinking and feeling. Dreams and Reckonings became the series I developed when I could find no words for what I was witnessing and experiencing during the time of the lock downs. I used only black ink and shina wood (which I will NEVER use again. There is a reason that wood had been abandoned in my basement), to create 9 single layer prints, 10-15 in each edition. I HAND printed those prints with a wooden spoon and a frog (a glass barren). I did so while listening to and singing along with D-Nice and Club Quaruntine. Five years later I am revisiting and reframing some of the ideas present in the previous series. Theoretically many of us survived the pandemic. There are also many of us who have lost someone or know someone who lost someone from those years. Dream Flowers is about what came from those ashes and what died or lay fallow in the post pandemic years. I realize that most of us out of necessity and perhaps out of a sense of self preservation have “moved on.” But have we? Three things that resonate for me from that time are the importance of community, our duty and ethic of love and care toward our communities, and the importance of connection to spirit. Now and moving forward I will use this space intermittently to share stories about my studio practice and what happens in the creation of my work. Sign up for my newsletter to receive advance notice of new posts, access to more behind the scenes photos and advance notice of upcoming events.
