I created this series for a natural history museum on Fishers Island, which sits off of New London, Connecticut. A few years ago, naturalist Justine Kibbe took me on a tour of the island’s flora and fauna. She showed me trails formed by a muskrat’s tail and arcs in the sand created by a single blade of windswept grass. I had been coming to the island since I was a child, but I felt as if I were seeing it for the first time. I began to pay closer attention to the island’s creatures; even animals that I had once thought of as ordinary took on new grandeur as I entered their world. This exhibition, primarily based on my own references, is a celebration of Fishers Island’s glorious wildlife.
The monotypes were created on Plexiglass with oil-based inks before being rolled through a press onto paper. The process is immediate and gestural. I use a roller (or brayer) to apply the paint and wipe it away with my hand and a piece of cloth. The white of the paper acts as the brightest white. While there is a good deal of planning and practice behind each image, the finished piece takes me a few hours from start to finish. As a pianist is rewarded for hours of rehearsal, the final performance feels confident and dynamic.
I am selling each animal portrait, at 18” x 26,” for $800 and each landscape, at 16” x 20,” for $300. I will donate 25% of my sales to the Henry Ferguson Museum. For inquiries, please send a message via my “contact” page.