The Garden of Democracy
How can this hold together? And what is beyond? What is currently happening to our democracy, political figures and events, has inspired synonymous garden elements of weeds and flowers, invasives and blooms that includes pollinators. (7.5″ x 4.5″ x 2″, Wood, metal, paper, collage, found objects 2022)

SONGBIRD color chart
This is a field guide of sorts that I started in 1997 after finding an antique book with a color chart for bird identification. I painted the colors on paper pieces and arranged them in a rising and falling rhythmic pattern.  Later I added sonograms and mnemonics of bird song or calls corresponding to the colors. A list of the 34 birds is on the back page and is numbered lightly on the preceding pages. (5.5” x 3.5” x 1.25”, Walnut, paper, ink, paint, press type 1997-2022)

COVID & ME
This series started in 2020 as the pandemic began to spread rapidly and California Governor Gavin Newson declared a shelter in place order. In my studio I had paper, ink, watercolors and some old children’s dictionaries. Each day there were reports on the radio of the growing epidemic, racial injustice, police brutality, raging fires & floods, elections, insurrections and evidence of the rise of fascism. I started drawing the most available subject, me. In the dictionaries I found definitions and illustrations serendipitously relating to my feelings and the events of the day. They were collaged along with the self portraits into an artists’ book. As these events escalated, more drawings were made and then more books followed. A total of nine were finished before I ended the series after the more than two years since the pandemic started. This series is in the collection of artists’ books in the U.C. Berkeley College of Environmental Design library. 

INCLINED TO DECLINE
Using images of different types of landscape collapse I wanted to make the observation in these extraordinary times of the decline of our environment and our culture. From everything including loss of our creatures, soil erosion, humankind strife and corruption in our institutions that all seem to be on the brink of disaster.(12” x 12” x 1.5” Cotton, ink, collage, birch bark 2020) COLLECTION: U.C. Berkeley College of Environmental Design library. 

PANDEMIC DAZE
Being sequestered inside for 3 months during the pandemic has led me to make a book about testing my sanity. It is made up of a series of Rorschach tests that reference the landscape. (4” x 2.5” x 2” Pine bark, cotton, watercolor, ink, collage 2020) COLLECTION: U.C. Berkeley College of Environmental Design library. 

TRUE GRIT
True grit is a story of perseverance. Surveying a situation and then making an attempt for resolution as futile as it sometimes seems. (6” x 6.5” x 1.5” Wood, cotton, collage 2020)

OVER & OUT
Like hiking through a unfamiliar landscape solutions to problems are sometimes obscured. Often it takes hard work to find a way to a resolution. Missteps could lead to bad outcomes and unusual events often present themselves but an answer usually emerges. (12” x 5” x 2” Pecan, schist, papyrus, cotton, bamboo, ink, collage 2020)

TRAVELOGUE
Travelogue Is a book about scale. A found log with bark beetle trails is scaled up to traveling through the countryside then to traversing the Alps. Small tasks can feel really large and this is a hand held manual to overcome this. (5” x 2” x 2” Pine, paper, collage 2020) PRIVATE COLLECTION

here you are
As you turn the pages you wander through a drawn and collaged landscape with text of a calming mantra as each page contains different synonyms for ‘wooded sanctuary.’ On the other side you travel through synonyms for ‘wander’ collaged with old travel guide maps. 5 x 6 x 7″ double-sided accordion. Collage. Bound in wooden boards. Cloth wrap with tie closure. Materials: birch bark, glaucophane schist, cotton paper, ink, metal, redwood, hemp.  COLLECTION: Smithsonian Libraries, American Art and Portrait Gallery Library, Washington D.C.