Bison
My work is a playful exploration of the ideas in my head. I care more about how pieces communicate than each artwork’s perfection, and I hope that they serve as an invitation for others to express their joy and curiosity about the world and our roles in it. I want us to remember that we can do hard things and that celebrating our tiny wins together is our best way forward.
I layer and fuse printed fabrics to create collaged images with both reverence and whimsy. I then follow a quilt formula of adding batting and backing, stitching these three layers together. The works are meant to be hung in places where you might see them daily for a little boost of brightness and inspiration. I am drawn to using bright colors, bold contrast, asymmetry, and I usually think outside the box. I often incorporate secret surprises that bring the viewer in closer and like to use a collaged botanical or a flower frame, creating little scenes you can enter and hang out in.
I get excited when I feature an animal in a piece. Living in Montana, that animal has been a bison for a while. It seems an easy entry; people care about them. They each have personalities, are engaging, and, as we anthropomorphize them, become symbolic of our own emotions and behaviors. Bison are known to face into a storm and circle to protect their young, exemplifying the behavior I crave from my own community. As the personal becomes political, my work serves as a soft entry into hard topics in gentle and usually subtle ways. As I move forward in this body of work, I’m deliberately exploring playful and surprising colors that spark curiosity. This is about celebrating small wins and discoveries, which I think our world is missing in a lot of ways. I'm trying to add it back in.