Ghost Forest Installation, on view in the MFA Studio Art Thesis Exhibition, All Else, at the Visual Arts Center, University of Texas in Austin, April 19 – May 11, 2024.

I am fascinated by the evolving atmosphere that light creates around transient subjects such as storms, nightscapes, and other emotionally-charged spaces. My work explores the phenomenon of being immersed in these realms. By recalling dreams and memories of the natural world, I utilize methods of printmaking, drawing, and painting to connect external and internal landscapes. My finished work becomes a traceable imprint of this exploration.

Last summer I travelled to Bornholm Island in Denmark to celebrate Midsommar. Walking through a pine plantation, I discovered an ancient standing stone in a forest clearing. I sketched the stone and listened to birdsongs on the breeze, subtly acclimating to the slower pace of the forest. Months later in the studio I recalled the experience, reimagining the site through monotypes. My memories became shaped by my emotions, and the resulting artwork blends both inner and outer realms with the printmaking transfer process, resulting in another world of its own.

In “Memory of Stone,” I used bodily memory to remember the scale of the standing stone. My hands remembered the texture and I used my height to recall how tall it stood. To create these life-size monotypes, I used the 3ft x 5ft bed of the press as my printmaking plate. In my efforts to remember the stone, I created many different versions. Each of these five standing stones holds a different piece of my memories, but needs each other to be complete. Together, these fractured memories form a new stone alignment.

The pine plantation surrounding the original site seemed eerie with its lack of vegetal variety. It was at once cavernous and dense. To activate a similar space around the standing stone prints, I created the large veil monotypes that make up “Ghost Forest.” To print each 11ft x 5ft monotype on the 3ft x 5ft press, I worked modularly, building one large image out of multiple prints on voile fabric. Grey voile fabric was chosen for its translucent and lightweight material, causing the prints to come to life and shift when the viewer walks pasts. Descending from the ceiling, the veil monotypes form a row one must walk past to get to the stones. The space between them allows glimpses of the stones, inspired by the myriad paths trees create in the forest. The veils appear different depending on the vantage point and the lighting enhances this effect. When the well-lit stones are behind them, the trees are less visible. When viewed from the stone monotypes, the translucent forest stands out against the shadows of the room beyond.