Invasive insects, such as the Emerald Ash Borer, chew holes in the leaves of mature trees, defoliating the branches and effectively weakening or killing the trees. The holes were laser cut and cast a shadow on the paper behind.

The Strangler Fig invades healthy hosts by casting seeds from the height of its branches which grow downward toward roots and trunks. After several years the encased host will die because it is deprived of the ability to turn sunlight into nutrients. The green drawing of a palm trunk is digitally printed on the inside of the Plexiglas.

I attended a residency at The Studios of Key West in December ’17-January ’18, three months after destructive Hurricane Irma ripped up the Florida Peninsula, leaving piles of manufactured and plant debris throughout Southern FL. At Everglades NP we questioned a ranger about water flow through the park and creatures found there, asking specifically about Burmese Python. She replied, ”Oh, they’re there, but you’ll never see them.” It became a metaphor as we explored Key West; some were at once obvious, some hidden in the background, intriguing or ugly, sometimes we saw them at once; others were revealed slowly later with a surprise.

Invasive Asian Water Chestnuts (inedible), painted in watercolor, are precariously stacked against a digital print ground of harmful giant hogweed and caterpillar tents. These species are non-native and severely threatening the environments in which they have taken hold.

Pod Invasive, 2015, Watercolor, archival inkjet print on paper, mounted on panel, 11” x 14” A non-native seedpod, painted in watercolor, sits within layered photographs of the environment which it has invaded and is destroying.