MARROW (Rendering Sycamore)

Photograms, video, installation, and hand stitched artist book printed on Washi Kozo paper.

MARROW: Rendering Sycamore (2021-present), explores interspecies relationships and seeks to reimagine our connections with nature. Through the act of paying attention to the trees around me—acknowledging their significance—I wonder: Can attention and respect for trees lead to increased solutions to end violence and reduce consumption and lessen harms? Can paying close attention to the messages and rhythms of trees foster healing relationships with other living beings and increase recognition of our interconnectedness?

This project comprises found Sycamore tree material from around the blocks where I live in Chicago Edgewater: photograms made from many-seasons worth of collected and marveled-over Sycamore bark, deadfall branches carried home from walks with Edmund-dog, as he puzzled and watched me balance the longest ones like a tightrope walker, and again watched from his perch half asleep in the heat all summer long as I skinned the branches bare, ash of sycamore stick backyard bonfires burnished into bark, images of exploded feather-filled seed-balls, photographs of burnt to white bark pieces, and knuckle bone-like branch knots laboriously, satisfyingly, peeled and washed clean and arranged like a hundred hip joints removed.