BUGS

Just as insects play many roles in Earth’s ecosystems, they have many symbolic messages to share with us. Pollinators create abundance wherever they go. Decomposers are experts at scavenging, recycling resources, destroying the old to build something new — they close the emotional circle. Many insects participate in complex social relationships and show us what’s possible through collaboration and coalition-building. After all, many ants make light work… 🐜🐜🐜🐜🐜🐜🐜🐜🐜🐜🐜🐜🐜🐜🐜🐜🐜🐜

DAZZLE CAMO

“Dazzle camouflage” (sometimes called “razzle dazzle”) was a short-lived experimental military camouflage technique credited to the artist Norman Wilkinson. I’m drawn to the graphic quality of these patterns and to the theory behind them — intended not to conceal but to confuse, these designs boldly subvert expectations. They refuse explanation and express a resistance to becoming less weird, a willingness to allow oneself to be misunderstood, a comfort with ambiguity and mystery, a nonconformist rejection of boring norms.

FLOWERS

Many flowers in my work reference the Victorian flower language’s lexicon of hidden meaning. I use them in my work to create opportunities for communicating things that may be difficult to say, with others and with oneself. In objects designed for use in ritual, the flowers cast a subtle spell, inviting the user to be influenced toward a specific quality of being. In this way they facilitate desired change and greater interpersonal understanding.

HANDS

It’s hard to overstate the importance of the human hand, in my view as a lifelong hands-on maker. Hands for me are the most obvious embodiment of independent thought and creative power. I use my hands to think through problems — the externalization of my loyalty to embodied human intelligence. But a hand can mean many things. I also think of hands as representing agency, action, the power to change reality. Hands linked at the fingertips, as in a SÉANCE, signify a desire for emotional resolution that will likely remain unfulfilled.

SNAKES + STRAWBERRIES

This image comes straight from a vivid dream I had one night and is very personal. To me it represents nondualism, gender ambiguity, dissolving binaries, and freedom from restrictive ideological systems. I use these symbols to express my inner self and represent personal empowerment through contemplating and exploring different possibilities. The myssssteriesss of the ssssubconscioussss are sssstrange indeed and, like a serpentine tongue, the future is forked.

STARS

Used for millennia by travelers navigating to far-away destinations, the stars have also been looked to for guidance in personal decision-making. They show us the cold hard facts but also the array of options. In this way they stand halfway between fate and free will. The stars help us locate ourselves and our place in the cosmos, individually and on a species level. They ground us with their reliability, providing a sense of stability in this mysterious universe and helping us zoom out to see a bigger picture, the world beyond ourselves.

TEA LEAVES

For me, tasseography is a way to explore relationships and confront my own perceptions. Like the dregs of a cup of tea, my imagined version of tea leaves provides a space for repeated reflection. Gazing into the vessel and turning the cup to see the pattern inside from fresh perspectives suggests new interpretations. I paint these images using a kind of automatic writing, holding my paintbrush in such a way that I have less manual control over the brushstrokes. Although I may have some themes in mind when I pick up my tools, this technique creates shapes that are open to endless analysis.

TEETH

My teeth have been a source of unease for me my whole life. There always seems to be something wrong with them, and the solution has always involved physical pain and draining needed resources. I see them as a manifestation of body horror, interpersonal conflict, loss, anxieties of many kinds. They represent mortality and the emotional responses provoked by the concept of death. Increasingly I also use them to work through these emotions to reach a place of acceptance and equanimity, befriending the mortal body. Teeth are my ultimate shadow symbol.