All That We Tried To Save
2026
This mixed media project All That We Tried To Save features handmade intimately-sized tactile pieces of photography as object.
They say, in a time of destruction, create something, so this series was inspired by the surreal times of intense darkness we are experiencing, with small, flickering lights of truth to guide us through.
Wanting deeply to make work that speaks to this time in history, I meditated on what is most important to me in this world. I came back each and every time to nature. Scanning through decades of my photographic archives I looked for the subjects I return to over and over again- Trees, birds, animals, bees, the moon, women and children...all symbols of wisdom, strength and the cycles of nature. All that we tried to save. Some of us, anyway-- while others actively worked to exploit and destroy the very beings that create and support life on Earth.
I chose encaustic as my medium for this project due to its preservationist qualities. Encaustic medium, which involves painting on dreamy layers of heated beeswax mixed with tree resin and natural pigments, has a rich history. Derived from the Greek word “enkaustikos,” meaning “to burn in,” encaustic is a unique and ancient art form that dates back to Greece and Egypt, where it was primarily used for painting portraits and decorating reliquaries, many of which have remarkably retained their vivid colors and intricate details over millennia.
So, in these perilous times, enshrining the most important and beloved yet fragile things in my world under the protective layers of nature's own elements, burned in space and time by trial of fire was a deliberate and symbolic choice.
This work combines my original photography with collaged ephemera on cradled birch panels. Each piece is one of a kind and finished with beeswax and tree resin with additional elements such as ink, antique book pages, gold and silver leaf and flecks of mica to reflect light and mirror what is real and precious when all that is artificial is gone.
*detail images available upon request
