I have been prone to consider my primary discipline as papermaking. For me, there is an undeniable beauty intrical with the process and with the final object as it is. The transformation that occurs from fibers to vat to dryer to sheet, fills me with a complete sensation that is only enhanced by the fact that many times papermaking is a communal activity. Then it becomes a question of how to link the sheets I produce with the larger social concerns present in my written works, the plain answer is a multidisciplinary approach to making.
Material considerations are very important for my work. As I have learned more about paper making, I have been headed down the path of wonder that is fiber study. For my work to be successful, a quality of intention must be imbued into the components. In this way, things that I produce are not items removed from their origins but show their coming into the world on their face. It is of the highest importance to me that the paper made for the exhibition reflect the months of labor that went into its production. This is achieved most immediately by allowing the plant materials to appear within the surface of the paper. Using the complete plant to create my sheets with minimal additives is my creative style and is a direct link back to what it is to make a thing for me.
It is essential that my work also hold up a mirror of itself for people to come into contact with, this gesture of being plain about the origins of a thing leads to some of my desired ends but other modes are also useful. This is of a high priority to me because it also speaks to my political ideals, in that it doesn’t allow for the erasure of the point of production from an object, which is a capitalist tool of divisive power control. In this way as the work speaks to the ills that plague a society in one way in its literal make up it is pushing back against the silencing that happens under the imperialist empire.
Crops planted for corn and sunflower paper. Photo courtesy of the artist.
Crops growing for sunflower and corn paper. Photo courtesy of the artist.
Tithonia Sunflower before harvest. Photo courtesy of the artist.
Sunflower petals prepared to be pressed. Photo courtesy of the artist.