(Re)Collect moved on from Eau Claire to Bemidji, MN during the summer 2024. With each beautiful venue, I was given an opportunity to install the exhibit in a spacious gallery with natural light.

I Collect once again invited viewers to give their input on the theme of the show by answering "What do you collect?" and "Why to you collect it?" Their responses were hung on pegboards suspended in the center of the exhibit.

From there, visitors could pivot right to explore Catalog and get a glimpse into what I collect: my personal Curiosity Cabinet. Alongside Catalog were the 3 framed works from the 'Plates' series and Disperse, with its handmade seeds spilling out from a podlike form.

Looking to the other side of the gallery, Inventory was suspended in the center of the room, this time mimicking the shoreline of nearby Lake Itasca, the headwaters to the Mississippi. Coffer and Arcana Entomological joined the tags on this side of the gallery.

"(Re)Collect" was on view at Pablo Center at the Confluence in Eau Claire, WI from March 21 - April 19, 2024. Both a revisit to and expansion of ongoing work, this exhibit was a continuation of my exploration into how and why we collect.

Inventory was once again suspended in the center of the room, this time taking on the shape of the nearby Chippewa River. New tags were made with handmade paper, then infused with wax making them more translucent. Disperse was expanded in a similar way, with new hand-sewn seeds constructed with handmade paper. Coffer and Arcana Entomological were also part of the show.

New work includes the mixed-media Plate According to some prearranged method as well as a piece titled Catalog. This wall-length collection of items acts as my own curiosity cabinet, with a mix of natural specimens and personal artwork that I've acquired or made in the recent past. While my personal interests lean towards natural history artifacts, another new piece called I Collect invites viewers to share what they collect and why.

Great Lakes Almanac was on view at Great Lakes Aquarium from June 1 - September 5, 2023. Read more about my first community-based project at the dedicated website: www.greatlakesalmanac.com.

This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Arrowhead Regional Arts Council and the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation by the Minnesota State Legislature.

The solo exhibit, Integument was on view at the Duluth Art Institute’s George Morrison Gallery from October 20, 2020 to December 31, 2020. For more details on events surrounding the exhibit, click here.

I was recently reminded that skin is an organ. Integument, which is the proper medical term for skin, also means any biological covering, like a husk or shell or hair. It is a protective barrier that suggests inside versus outside and a transitional surface that represents both growth and what gets left behind.

The first pieces in Integument started with weaving paper and experimenting with volume by adding wire. The overlapping strips allowed for more than one idea to intersect on a single plane while also disrupting the continuity of design. The wire provided a skeletal frame to hold form.

The desire for dimension continued with shaping paper infused with encaustic wax. This saturation process stiffens the material while also creating a translucent layer - a barrier that implies something below or beyond. When folded and contoured, the waxed paper records scars.

The folding of meaning was carried forward in the fabricated seeds, where photographic moments meet words in hand-sewn capsules. And finally, actual integumentary materials - hog casings and wool - were shaped into various forms and then released into the room.

Processes in nature are woven through this body of work. Integument can act as a tangible record of these natural transitions when you think about skin shed, or hair lost. One of my favorite things to find is the exoskeleton of an insect on a tree or beside a river. There is so much present in that moment of discovery – proof of the existence of a being that was once encased in this layer. It is a proof of time passing, of aging - something all organisms experience, for better or worse. For me, it is also proof of the wonder of nature that something can look both so delicate and transparent while maintaining the perfect shape of the subject that discarded it.

This activity is made possible in part by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Arrowhead Regional Arts Council, thanks to appropriations from the Minnesota State Legislature’s general fund.

Visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32I3HGvIXpA to see a video compilation by Duluth Art Institute on the exhibit.

Reconfigure on view at MacRostie Art Center, Grand Rapids, Minnesota in February 2019.

To see more images of the individual pieces in Reconfigure, visit the Artwork portion of the website. To see another installation of Reconfigure, and to read the artist statement for this exhibit, visit the Kruk Gallery page.

To see the artist talk for this event, please visit this page.

Reconfigure was on view at the Kruk Gallery, University of Wisconsin Superior, from November 2018 - January 2019.

Reconfigure: (v). to rearrange (something) into an altered form, figure, shape, or layout : to configure(something) again or in a new way

My artwork is inspired by natural history, in particular the process of collecting, classifying and displaying public and personal specimen collections. My artmaking is fueled by philosophy: a desire to pose questions about human nature and existence; a desire to find meaning and joy in simple things.

From these two platforms, I explore ways to impose unexpected connections between human and animal, blurring the lines between observer and the observed. The human figure is pinned in a specimen drawer, an insect’s framework includes human anatomy, human and animal details are inventoried on toe tags. The entanglement can disrupt what is known and therefore open a door to curiosity and reflection.

My exploration stems from questions of why we collect and what deeper emotions or intentions are masked in the process. While a cataloguing of artifacts can increase understanding of both the wider world and our own physiology, it can also be a diversion from aging and mortality, an attempt to cheat time under the pretext of preservation. In a different light, it can be a way to augment wonder - the process of amassing natural specimens becomes a method for accumulating memories. Research has led me back in time to 16th and 17th century curiosity cabinets, as well as to their successors, the natural history museums of modern day. I am curious about the humanness of the act of collecting. I want to subject humans and beasts to equal scrutiny, control and wonder to reveal the many layers of our relationship to the natural world and to ourselves.

Both inspiration and actual content is derived from natural history illustrations, old medical drawings and text, and from my own photographs and observational drawings. Using collage and piece-specific materials such as entomology pins and embroidery, I make two- and three-dimensional works that provide an interactive experience. Seen from afar the installation is a coherent assembly of parts designed to draw in the viewer. Up close, details aim to inspire a sense of wonder.

Reconfigure was made possible in part by a Career Development Grant from Arrowhead Regional Arts Council.

More images of each piece can be found under the Artwork heading. To see a video about the exhibit by The Slice, visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bO8KK9XEf4.

Taking Stock was on view at the Tweed Museum at University of Minnesota Duluth in Fall of 2017. This was my senior exhibit and a culmination of my BFA degree in Painting, Drawing and Printmaking.

For details on the each of the 3 individual pieces, visit the Artwork pages: Inventory, Coffer and Recordkeeping.

Also visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CStNCAC_0DE to see a video on the exhibition.

Submitting work to juried exhibits throughout the country has been a great way to get additional exposure. Shown here are a few of the pieces on display.