May Babcock
A papermaking artist using abundant natural materials foraged in New England, giving voice to waterways and their surrounding lands.
Message
To collect my art, please email [email protected]
About
May Babcock is a papermaking artist who transforms natural materials into paintings, sculptures, and installations, giving voice to New England waterways and their surrounding lands. Babcock has exhibited nationally and internationally at places such as the RISD Museum of Art, Fitchburg Art Museum, National Taiwan Craft Research and Development Institute, and the Ogden Museum of Southern Art. Her work has been collected by the Boston Athenaeum, RISD Museum, and private collections. Awards include a creative community fellowship from National Arts Strategies and a Citizen’s Citation for Environmental Education from the mayor of Providence. Babcock has installed public art at Brown University, Illinois State Museum, Rhode Island State House, and T.F. Green International Airport. She is the founder of Paperslurry.com, guest editor for Hand Papermaking magazine, and is a certified invasive plant manager and master gardener.
Statement
I am a papermaking artist who uses foraged natural materials, bringing the voice of waterways and place into contemporary art.
Based in New England, I begin by sketching and researching specific watersheds and rivers, estuaries and shorelines. From each site, I collect abundant plants, seaweed, and sediment. As a multiracial artist of Taiwanese Chinese descent, witnessing place is a search for belonging. Working with so-called “invasive” plants creates connection too—they are resilient species from elsewhere that have adapted to thrive in already distressed sites.
In the studio, plants transform into paper. Innovative papermaking techniques fuse the watery fibers into paintings and sculptures. On site, the same natural materials become Earthworks and installations. This ecological art expresses each places’s material realities, psychology, flora, and human histories.