Artist Statement

I make colorful abstract paintings that bring together historic topographic maps of rivers and other waterbodies, designs drawn from ancient earthworks, and the geometry of contemporary crop circles. I begin with imagery from vintage hand-drawn maps of places that hold personal significance—areas where I have lived or that carry a sense of historic or mythic power. Within these painterly mapscapes, I explore the tension between organic, natural elements and angular, human-made forms, weaving in symbols and sigils.

These symbols come from two primary sources. Some derive from earthworks created by the Indigenous mound-building cultures of North America. Once widespread across the landscape, many of these structures were destroyed, and their creation was long attributed to an imagined vanished people rather than to the Indigenous nations whose ancestors built them. Other forms come from the crop circles that continue to appear in Wiltshire, England—intricate geometries whose makers are often unknown or disputed and whose patterns sometimes echo ancient earthworks and sacred geometry. I do not see these histories as equivalent: one carries a legacy of cultural erasure, while the other remains an ongoing mystery. Yet both invite reflection on how meaning persists in marks upon the land, even when their makers have been forgotten, denied, disputed, or remain unknown.

We use maps to orient ourselves and find our way, but maps can also tell complicated stories about history, power, and what we value. In these paintings, I create my own treasure maps of meaning and connection. They link past and present and trace the threads connecting geography, mythology, and identity.