garden's gate.

My work over the past five years has documented the deconstruction of my Evangelical upbringing, and has consequently become a love letter to nature and the divinity I find within it. Last year I moved to the Oregon coast from Southern California and my practice was galvanized by the grandiosity of ancient forests and untamed seas. My subject matter consists primarily of plants and animals, with some abstraction as informed by textures and patterns found in nature. I utilize many methods and mediums in my practice, most notably ink, collage, cyanotype, photography, and digital illustration. 

​

These works, no matter what medium they may be born from, are meditations—prayers of wonderment and gratitude. The collection I have submitted, entitled Garden’s Gate, is a nod to the Garden of Eden. From a fundamentalist point of view, the Garden represents the moment humanity was damned and decay became imminent. This clear delineation between good and evil perpetuates a dualistic worldview—one that fails to recognize that beauty is found in the delicate balance between life and death, and that each being is awe-inspiring not in spite of its temporality, but because of it.