The Memory of Nature / Nature of Memory: The Seaweed Series

I often use grids to structure images of chaos, wildness, randomness, and natural forms that seem devoid of order yet lure me with their elegance. The smaller pieces without grids are like miniature landscapes, tangled gardens of jewels. In the larger images with grids, it's as if I were playing a game of chess between order and chaos, knowing and not knowing, remembering and forgetting. The grids created by the black frames of the individual prints calm the chaos and provide a structure.

  Night Life, 44"h x 42"w and detail, right

   Andromeda, 33"h x 42"w and detail, right (Acquired by the Provincetown Art Association and Museum)

Apparition, 72" x 72"   and below at Appearances in Provincetown, MA, with Wandering II

Wandering II, (Eelgrass and bryozoa, tiny invertabrate animals that are filter feeders and usually attached to plants, rocks, or shells.)

Findings, 72" x 96", detail below left

    
                                                                                                                                           Wandering Memory                                                                                                                                      

   Sea Memory, Branching, 54" x 48"                                                                          Intertwined (Knotted Wrack and Beachgrass Roots) 54" x 48"

 
            Source/Awakening (seaweed) 54" x 48"                                                                 Heart Strings (seaweed) 48" x 36", 12 units,                                                         

         
All in the Mind A 16" x 12" (sold)              All in the Mind B 16" x 12" (sold)          All in the Mind C 16" x 12" (sold)     All in the Mind D 16" x 12" (sold)

 
Remembering (Amaranth Root), 48" x 36"                                                          Memory Reach (Fine Roots); 54" x 36"                                                                   

Last Summer (Beach Salvage), 72" x 60"; installation view at Galatea Fine Art, with Circular Memory and Sea Lettuce

Memory has been central to much of my work, playing out in various forms and media: photography, printmaking, mixed-media, and installation. This series of seaweed consists of photographs made from high resolution scans. They evolved after looking at memory from the perspective of neuroscience and more specifically, images of the brain and nervous system made possible by scientific and medical technologies developed in recent decades.  I was struck by the beauty of these images and by their visual and conceptual parallels with natural forms such as roots and algae. To get a better handle on the estimated 100 billion neurons (brain cells), 500 trillion synapses, and the dendrites, axons and nodes in the overall nervous system, I began scanning small bits of seaweed at high resolution and printing them ten to twenty times their original size. At this scale, tiny strand, node or branch of algae along with grains of sand, presents itself in astonishing detail.

This project was funded in part by a Visual Arts Sea Grant awarded by the University of Rhode Island in 2010.
Work from the project has been featured in Solo shows at Galatea Fine Arts, Boston; the Milton Art Museum, Canton, MA; the Cultural Center of Cape Cod, Yarmouth; Summer Star Nature Sanctuary, Linden Street Galley, Boylston, MA. In Three-Person shows titled Mind Sets in Maryland and Vermont. And in Group shows at A.I.R. Gallery, Brooklyn, NY;  University of Rhode Island Main Gallery, Kingston; Cotuit Center for the Arts, Cotuit, MA; South Shore Art Center, Cohasset, MA; and in Provincetown at the Center for Coastal Studies; the Fine Arts Work Center; Schoolhouse Gallery; and the Provincetown Art Association and Museum.