A Practice in listening
I feel a deep sensitivity to land. I am always in practice to listen to land. Growing up in the sagebrush hills of Central Washington I feel the deepest connection there. My years walking and exploring allows me to listen and talk to the land at a much deeper level.
My travels from West to East and East to West have allowed me to feel my softness that comes from growing up in the west, the vast wilderness that was born inside of me. The ability to feel the pulse of land in a way that someone who grew up in a dense place might never feel.
This project first began as a practice in translating experiences and landscapes. After letting an experience pass me I realized that I had to design and create in the moment of the experience. As I was planning a trip back to my hometown in Central Washington in January 2018 I created a personal residency that entailed going on my favorite walks and finding elements to take pictures of that I would translate into designs. I made these designs with a medium that I don’t have a developed relationship with, fiber this was to aid with the make and release process. I have an established relationship with metal, while fiber allowed me to experiment without expectations or judgment. The project gave me a deeper level of awareness to connect with the land. In 18 days I completed my 12 squares before heading back east. I loved the project and wanted to keep exploring the process of translating landscapes, specifically these landscapes of home so I decided to make a brooch inspired by the Castle Rock design. The ability to translate the design one more time in my favorite medium of metal felt like a conclusion to the project so I decided to make all 12 designs into brooches.
