Artist Statement

My practice explores medicinal plants through research, years of field study. and mixed media artwork. I engage with the ways plants hold and transmit healing knowledge, and how art can become a way of documenting, interpreting, and advocating for the natural world. My process-led studio practice often incorporates a variety of traditional media (gouache, acrylic, watercolor), with hand made pigments and dyes from foraged plants and minerals. I utilize inspiration from found objects and collage, often working on Arches paper, silk, and incorporate needle craft, resins, or gilding. I use mixed media to explore plant personhood and create a sense of time and place within our natural world.

My relationship with plants began in my grandparents’ humble gardens and the family homesteads in Thief River Falls and Cambridge, Minnesota, where my Swedish ancestors settled. Some of my fondest childhood memories are rooted in the anticipation of nature: waiting for the first fragrant lily of the valley to bloom, Juneberries to ripen, or baby ducks to emerge from the tiger lilies. It was in these gardens that I began making my first drawings of plants. This early sense of wonder continues to shape my practice and my ongoing study of medicinal plants.

For as often as we think of ourselves as individuals, we are always co-creating with nature. I believe plants are equal creators of knowledge, carrying histories and cultural traditions through rites, recipes, medicine, and ancestral practices. My artwork builds a bridge between instinctive and acedemic plant knowledge while exploring the delicate tension between permanence and change. Through each work, I hope to reignite a sense of anticipation and wonder toward nature and create a space for healing; where the stories plants hold can be seen, shared, and carried forward.