Statement
I am a lens-based artist interested in the ways image-making can
happen beyond using a traditional camera. I am drawn to processes that
reflect and embrace my disabled experience; especially
interdependence, impermanence, care, and slowness.
Working with the alternative photographic process of chlorophyll
printing (which uses UV light to print photographic images directly
onto leaves) I connect disability and nature to claim disability as a
valuable part of diversity.
This process (where one print/exposure may take 8- 72 hours) relies on
flexibility and interdependence with nature. It echoes my experience
of the disability concept of _Crip Time_, living in a body/mind that
values slowing down, connection, and care over speed and production.
My submitted images are from two bodies of work “Latency" and “I
Don’t Want To Paint A Silver Lining Around It.”
“Latency” explores hidden disabilities, stigma, and the
experiences of the medicalized body. Printing my medical imagery
reclaims my agency as a patient. I create these images with love and
care, and in the process, the parts of me that are seen as deficient
in the medical world are transformed into living temporal pieces of
beauty.
“I Don’t Want To Paint A Silver Lining Around It” explores being
immunocompromised and high-risk in the pandemic. The subject matter
highlights isolation during prolonged sheltering in place, disabled
care networks, medical treatment, rest, and _access intimacy_.
I exhibit chlorophyll print work in two connected methods. Large
pigment prints of the leaves when they were first printed (created
through a digital scan.) Accompanying these are the printed leaves
themselves. Framed and covered with blackout cloth, visitors must lift
the cloth to interact with chlorophyll leaves. This helps protect the
leaf from UV light that accelerates its biodegradation and provides an
intimate viewing experience. This link of past and present emphasizes
connection and non-linear flexible time.
Disability
Psoriatic Arthritis, Hashimoto’s, Anxiety, Chronic Pain
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L: Quarantine Day 280
2021
Chlorophyll print on hosta leaf
11x11”
Archival pigment print from scan
20x20”
R: Quarantine Day 280
2021
re-scanned in 2023 to show the leaf’s changes over time.
Description: L: A green oval-shaped hosta leaf on a black background. The leaf is going diag- onally across the frame with the leaf stem in the top left. Printed into the chlorophyll is a self-portrait where my eyes and face masks are visible. The rest of my face and hair gradually disappear into the leaf. R: The same image but over the years the leaf has turned an umber hue. |
Ulnar Drift
2019
Chlorophyll print on ti leaf
11x14”
Archival pigment print from scan
20x20”
Description: a long vertical tear shaped ti leaf on a black background. Printed in the dark green chlorophyll is the shadow of an extended hand. |
Villainous Character
2019
Chlorophyll print on hydrangea leaf
11x11”
Archival pigment print from scan
20x20”
Description: An olive green hydrangea leaf on a black background. The leaf has dark purple and light grey spots from weathering in the fall. Printed in the chlorophyll in a lighter green are Richard III’s spine and rib cage. |
Untitled
(180,000 lost and counting) August 26, 2020
Chlorophyll print on hosta leaf
11x11”
Archival pigment print from scan 20x20”
Description: A heart-shaped hosta leaf on a black background. Printed in the chlorophyll is an empty hospital bed, lit by the natural light of a nearby window.
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Marginal Erosions
2019
Chlorophyll print on betel leaf
11x11”
Archival pigment print from scan
20x20”
Description: A dark green betel leaf on
a black background. The leaf is shaped like an upside-down heart. Printed into the chlorophyll appearing in lighter green is an x-ray of my hand. The bottom of my hand rests at the bottom of the leaf. My curved fingertips touch the very top of the leaf. |
Quarantine Day 980 (I Love You, Goodnight)
2023
Chlorophyll print on checkered prayer plant leaf
11x11”
Archival pigment print from scan
24x24
”
Description: A vertical tear drop shaped prayer plant leaf. The leaf is light green with a pattern of dark green cross-hatched lines creating a checkered pattern. Printed in the leaf is a shad- ow of my extended arm making the “I Love You” sign in ASL. Surrounding my arm is the shadow of window panes in a grid.
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Latency
Installation image
Foster Gallery
Dedham, MA
2019
Image: Large archival pigment prints from scans of chlorophyll prints are framed on the gallery walls. In the middle of the gallery is a wood-
en table built to be at an accessible height for wheelchair users.
Resting on top of the table are framed chloro- phyll print leaves covered with blackout cloth. One cover is flipped open showing the printed leaf underneath. It is an x-ray of a c-spine printed on an oval-shaped green leaf. |
Slowly the Sun Weaves Past into Present
Installation image
Cultural Equity Incubator Gallery
Boston MA. 2023
Image: A grouping of a digital print, chlorophyll print, and tactile representation*. The image represented in all three is the shadow of my arm extended with my hand making the “I Love you” sign in ASL. It is printed on a checkered prayer plant leaf. The chlorophyll-printed leaf has start- ed to change hue to umber and wrinkle in com- parison to the scanned archival print on the wall.
*The tactile representation is an embossed com- position created to engage the work through touch. This is an access feature for people with blindness or low vision. |
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