sedimentary
handmade paper, abaca, flax, cotton, recycled & found fibers, pulp paper blowouts, found objects, glass, paint, digital photography
2024, ongoing
sedimentary is an ongoing field research, paper-making, & photography project exploring the blurring of the natural and built environment and the entropic entanglement of natural and synthetic materials. the places I call home, the Appalachian Mountains and the Narragansett Bay, have distinct legacies of industrial innovation, proliferance and decay, and are covered with the remnants of these industries, creating what I consider modern transitional ecologies. in this series I’m producing
paper objects which incorporate / emulate found and foraged fibers, street trash such as glass, plastics, construction materials, and other natural elements like stone and soil. originally taking inspiration from the thick chips of lead paint that are sedimented onto the old mill buildings and warehouses in this area of Providence, the paper objects in this series are dimensional but not cast or vacuum formed, emulating the weathered and battered forms of trash as it moves and is transformed over time.
to accompany this project I am doing material research into foraged fibers and synthetic found fibers for papermaking, focusing especially on cooking and processing foraged fibers that I’ve collected in the Narragansett Bay as an artist in residence on Prudence Island, as well as creating hand-woven nets to accompany sedimentary in its various installation forms. sedimentary has been developed during the 2024 and 2025 Winter Residency at the Penland School of Craft, and has been installed at Penland, the Waterfire Arts Center, and in tangled stream, a group exhibition put on by myself and my studio mates.