I am a stitch. I run. I obsess. I wobble. I pierce. I function. I heal. My work is an intuitive exploration of what lies within the body. I approach the process with great curiosity for making visible that which is invisible. Marks form on the canvas in a kinetic fashion - “I want to touch that. I can already feel it.” I play out this infinite dialogue with fabric and thread, paint and pencils. Using my grandmother’s sewing machine and needles, I piece together strips of linen and cover them with hand stitches. Graphite rubbings made from the natural world find their way into the underlayers of the paintings. And marks made with my Grandfather’s medical tools scratch and reveal, suggesting growth, connections and our transformations. A recent trip to visit the Confluence project by artist Maya Lin inspires my current works. I was quite moved by the Cedar Circle at Cape Disappointment where 7 pieces of driftwood are erected among the living trees suggesting a mixing of past and present. Rubbings from an ancient cedar tree section become stitched lines and graphite elements among the paint and raw linen. Other elements explore themes of release and transformation by creating cocoon like shapes out of rubbings from native rhododendron leaves.