NATURAL INK

An exploration into traditional Japanese textile dying, started during the pandemic as a way to mark 
"I am here" as a disabled artist. When official and unofficial government and medical system remarks during the time boiled down to the notion that people who were high-risk were just going to have to either a) never leave home, or b) likely just pass - creating artwork that infused my environment felt like resistance.

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Most works incorporate handmade vine black ink from Japanese Anemone in my backyard, manipulations of copper oxide and oak gall gathered from a local neighborhood park. Pigments have been made from rocks and natural ephemera gathered on family trips to central Oregon, the Oregon coast, and Hagg Lake. When wide, sweeping, circular swaths of ink are used, they are also symbolic of my mobility of the time. I practice movement in my studio daily, almost like a dance, in order to honor where my body is at.