“Wilderness scares us because it is us unknown, indifferent, dangerous, yet it is an absolute need to us; it is that animal otherness, that strangeness, older and greater than ourselves, that we must join, or rejoin, if we want to stay sane and stay alive” (Ursula K. Le Guin).
My current work is an investigation and reinterpretation of traditional Western European children’s stories and rhymes. These stories allow for the reader, a place of greater belonging within “a complex and ever-changing picture of a morally mute natural world remote from its creator” (Mark Lilla). These often complex stories go beyond the superficial comfort of childhood nostalgia and offer, even when horrific or tragic, reassurance in “a world large enough to contain alternatives and therefore offer hope” (Ursula K. Le Guin). By injecting both dangerous and playful aspects into my work, I hope to create a space that invites the viewer to explore, even as they resist the urge to flee.
Print is the ideal medium for my installations, allowing play and experimentation with multiples, as well as referencing the written and print tradition of storytelling and illustration. The printed cut-out characters inhabit the walls, drawing the viewer into the story. Surface and space informs the work, each installation adapting to the unique space allowing for new relationships between the work, the environment and the viewer.
EDUCATION
2011 PGDE Secondary, University of Glasgow, Scotland
2009 BFAH, Queen’s University, Kingston ON
2005 Western Initiative and Scholarly Excellence, UWO, London ON
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2011 Flight, Spark Box Studio, Picton ON
2010 Flight, Modern Fuel, Kingston ON
2009 Songs and Stories I Remember, Grad Club, Kingston ON
GROUP EXHIBITIONS AND COLABORATIONS
2011 The Printmakers from Queen’s, Durham Art Gallery, Durham ON
2009 We Made A Deal With The Devil, Kingston & Ottawa ON
2009 How I Learned to Stop Worrying [...], BFAH grad exhibition, Queen’s University Kingston ON
2009 BFA Select: Playground, Agnes Etherington Art Center, Kingston ON
2009 Profane Illuminations, Union Gallery, Kingston ON
2008 Paintings on Wood, 4 Colour 8 Bit, Kingston ON
2007 Queen’s on Queen Street, Propeller Gallery, Toronto ON
2006 24/7, Queen’s BFA Class, Union Gallery, Queen’s University, Kingston ON
PERFORMANCES
2008 ARTHappens8, Union Gallery, Kingston ON
RELATED EXPERIENCE
2009 Assistant Print Technician, Queen’s University, Kingston ON
2009 Graduating Show Coordinator, Queen’s University, Kingston ON
RESIDENCIES
2009 Spark Box Studio, Picton ON
2008 Gravity Press Experimental Print Shop, North Adams, MASS
AWARDS
2009 Artist Residency, Spark Box Studio, Picton ON
2009 Andre Bieler Prize, Queen’s University, Kingston ON
