Behind the Scenes

My idea for a body of work using animal imagery began as a page in my sketchbook about three years before. At the time, I felt powerless, and I was searching for a symbol to express my frustration and fear. I eventually settled on the image of a snarling wolf. By baring her teeth, the wolf indicates her willingness to defend herself—a willingness I wanted to feel.

I alternated layers of collaged paper with
sections of oil paint, building up the background of the paintings and laying out the
animal figures. Throughout the process, I experimented with several different media, including cold wax medium, linseed oil, and Liquin, to change the consistency of the paint.

To create this hare sculpture, I began by using an armature to pile on solid chunks of clay, then rough out the form of the hare bust. While
the clay was still malleable, I refined the shape of the head and neck. I then formed the ears of the hare, using supports to help them stand up tto dry. Once the head and ears were set-up, I carefully attached them, again using supports to keep the precarious ears in place.

Once my paintings and sculpture were complete, it was time to begin the process of dyeing the fabric panels using natural pigments, such as turmeric pictured below.

Once I arranged the panels, I sewed each section together, including a pocket along the top for a PVC pipe to suspend the panels.

While three of the panels were suspended using PVC pipe hanging from the ceiling, the other three were pinned to the walls of the gallery.

On March 8, 2021 I held my Gallery Opening Night, where I invited faculty, friends, and family to experience the final exhibition. I received an overwhelmingly positive response, including many women who came forward to share their similar stories of trauma and express their gratitude for my choice to shed light on such a taboo topic. I am incredibly grateful and humbled by these messages and they gave me confidence to continue expressing my story.

To create the series of four paintings, I began by priming the panels before drawing on the composition. Once I had the composition laid out, I collected found paper from magazines, vintage books, and my own stockpile of collected scraps. I used cold wax medium to attach the paper while still being able to paint over it.

Finally I began adding final details to my series of paintings and finished this series in the Summer of 2020.

After the piece was bisque-
fired, my professor helped me glaze the 21-inch-long piece by dumping two 5-gallon buckets of glaze into a large plastic bin to dunk the sculpture inside. After letting the glaze dry, it went into the glaze kiln for three days. It came out of the final firing in one piece and with great results.

Using a layout I created in Adobe Illustrator, I arranged the fabric pieces and pinned them together in large, 6' x 8' panels

To finish off these fabric panels, I ironed on text from my book project and used a technique called Hapazome to create the flower and leaf prints. The six large fabric panels were then ready to be suspended in the gallery.

After all the panels and paintings were suspended, I made some final adjustments and trimmed excess fabric from the sewing process.