My current work is rooted in a years-long investigation of the color blaze orange in the context of rural and urban space and place. I was first introduced to this color while residing in Maine, where residents of the small town that I lived in were advised to wear blaze orange vests when spending time outdoors during the hunting seasons. Historically, guides in Maine suggested that hunters adopt this gaudy color as a “safeguard against the ignoramus.” I am interested in blaze orange as a warning sign and as a symbol of safety amidst danger: its visibility suggests that one be cautious of their surroundings. What happens if this color fails to communicate its message?

Blaze Breakers is an ongoing, multimedia project that utilizes analog and digital processes to distort, degrade, and destroy the color blaze orange. Four years ago I scanned a blaze orange bandana for use in a book I was producing about hunting textiles called Under Cover. The scanner’s software could not fully process the bright orange color and inserted glitchy green artifacts into the image. The technology could not represent the color accurately and my obsession with “breaking” blaze orange was born. Textile manipulation, digital image capturing, Instagram filtering and compression, traditional 35mm film processes, and projection methods are some of the technical approaches used in this continued investigation. I am interested in presenting the viewer with the artifacts of this once bright, purposeful color. The technical means to destroy the color produce new translations of what once were vibrant, urgent messages.

From January 18, 2015 to January 18, 2016, I collected data about my daughter's first year of life and created digital, timeline-like drawings about her daily schedule. I tracked the times of each nursing session, pumping session, nightly sleep and morning wake-up, daytime nap, diaper, bath, bottle, and solid food acceptance. I began the project with hand-dyeing samples of wool, scanning the samples and adjusting them into digital files, and then arranging the “tiles” into blanket-like digital compositions.

An ongoing body of work combining textile manipulation with traditional painting. I am inspired by the landscape and vernacular of rural communities, particularly the use of hunting textiles in everyday life.

Work created while living in Farmington, ME, a rural community in central, western Maine.

One of Farmington, Maine's earliest industries was the production of wool, and now that winter has arrived, I find myself relying on this material in my everyday life more than I ever had before living here. My goal with this series is to depict the atmospheric quality of this wintery landscape through materials that have significance to Farmington and are also essential to winter survival. Each piece is created by needle-felting alpaca and sheep's wool onto wool roving stretched over a wooden frame. The piece is then photographed and printed on waterproof vinyl.