Resonant Signs: Secret Places, Sacred Spaces

Project Description — Resonant Signs: Secret Places, Sacred Spaces

Resonant Signs: Secret Places, Sacred Spaces is a 24-part body of work comprised of  twelve paintings and twelve accompanying photographs that document the shifts and transformations of the American Midwest landscape in the face of climate change. Together, these works illuminate the loss and alteration of sacred spaces for both humans and wildlife, drawing attention to the fragile ecological relationships that sustain life. Informed by the region’s seasonal landscapes, each painting corresponds to a month of the year, with palettes developed through research and experimentation with botanical materials, including flowers, fruits, roots, seeds, and other naturally derived colorants. The resulting works serve as material records of place and time, capturing the interdependence of seasonal cycles, ecological change, and cultural memory while inviting reflection on what is lost, transformed, and preserved as our relationship with the natural world evolves. Shaped by the ecological relationships and seasonal transformations of the landscape from which their colors emerge. In this practice, nature is not simply a subject to be represented. It is an active participant in the making of the work.

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Plants carry histories of cultivation, migration, medicine, and cultural exchange. Their chemical properties, growing conditions, and changing colors influence the possibilities of artistic expression. The process of cultivating, foraging, extracting, and transforming these materials requires sustained attention to the living systems upon which artistic production depends. Through this relationship with materials, I investigate how ecological knowledge and cosmological understandings of the sacred might inform contemporary ways of seeing and inhabiting the world. The paintings invite contemplation of the more-than-human world, encouraging viewers to consider the significance of life beyond human experience and the responsibilities that emerge from our interdependence with it. The exhibition seeks to create a space where wonder becomes a form of attention and attention becomes an opportunity for deeper understanding. These paintings offer an invitation to look more closely at the worlds that surround us: the intricate life of a plant, the history held within a pigment, the seasonal rhythms of a landscape, and the relationships that connect the smallest living organism to the larger systems of existence.