I am a collector of nature.

Scraps of lichen, bits of feather, snakeskin, boxes of insects, wasp nests, fossils, and a collection of taxidermy animals adorn my home and studio to inspire my work.

My work celebrates the feeling of meditating on these natural forms.

These cabinet of wonders were inspired through years of loving going to the Natural History Museum and the Walters Museums own Cabinet of Wonders.

These Light box screens were made for the show "Forest Floor"at Stevenson University in 2011.
The light gives them a sense of the nocturnal. They are hand cut drawings of the flora and fauna of the forest.

These six cut paper leaf drawings were made for the exhibition "Forest Floor" Stevenson University,Baltimore, MD.in 2011.
I wanted to see how much I could get out of using limited materials. I used graphite pencils
throughout all the leaves and a small amount of gouache on a few. I combined a wasp nest, snake-skin,taxidermy birds,rocks, from my collection of cabinet of curiosities. These are very large life size leaves 2ft. x 2 ft. that I collected to dry out and draw from.

These paper wax animals were created for "Forest Floor" at Stevenson University,Baltimore,MD.2011. Combining trace monoprints on mulberry paper with the cut paper and wax helped combine drawing and sculpture.The trace monoprints became a second skin over the animals bellies and backs.To my surprise they looked like tattoos or drawings of anatomy.These are life size animals that I find joy in spotting through my walks in the woods.

Wetlands, Pinkard Gallery, The Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD. 2013.


I am interested in the slowing of time and a meditative recollection of the regenerative and corroding events of nature.

A canoe gliding on the surface of a river.

A heron returning to a stream.

The muddy undergrowth and continuous humming of the swamp.

A fish skeleton picked clean.

The sound of woodpeckers tapping into trees.

The weathered scattered bones of a deer.

These images come from time spent exploring natural areas along the east coast.

Edge of the Forest, VisArts, Rockville,MD. 2015.

“Edge of the Forest”
“Edge of the Forest” explores the solitude of travel, place, and time through nature. The slow looking at water, trees, plants, and animals translates the life force, movement, rhythm, and our perspective of time and place.

Garmey was inspired by the naturalist Henry David Thoreau's stay in a small cabin on Walden Pond in 1847. Thoreau's simplicity for a single cot and three chairs - one chair for solitude, two for conversation, and three for socializing. This influenced her choices for her own paper cabin with hand made hiking boots, handmade rocks and filling journals with writings and drawings. Thinking of her own solitudes and replenishment through nature helped create this space.
 
The artist invites the viewer to walk through these environments, to evoke subtle and sometimes surprising shifts of moods and space. The work will heighten awareness of our inter-dependence with nature, and evoke a respect and willingness to protect the environment.
The installation includes many works made with cut paper, as with the three dimensional animals. The mural of animal drawings are done in graphite with screen printed ferns.  The drawings on the cabin are drawn on paper which has been made transparent with wax. Wax was used to transfer drawings to the encaustic surface on the slices of wood.  

I went into the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not , when I came to die discover that  I had not lived.
 
- Henry David Thoreau