I work with animals, insects and plants and collage them with photographs I have done of our bodies to show our unity, in this time of climate crisis, with the natural world. I always enjoy watching dragonflies flying over ponds of water. I marvel at their wing span as they navigate near the water’s surface. I love how their wings reflect light as they flit and hover over water.
Dragonflies are known and sometimes revered all over the world. There are as many as 5000 species of dragonfly. Learning how many cultures have myths and beliefs associated with dragonflies has increased my own admiration and love for them.
One of the names of Japan is Akitsushima which means island of dragonflies. For Aboriginals in Australia dragonflies symbolize dancing and a reminder for humans to look within. In Welsh mythology, the word for dragonfly means snake’s servant, as they are often seen in the same environs as snakes. In the South West of the U.S., native Americans see dragonflies as the helper to bring rain and water in the dry areas. Celtic mythology has 23 names for the dragonfly.
In all these beliefs and myths, dragonflies are associated with change and transformation, particularly to bring more light and joy into our lives.
I have done this installation of dragonfly wings with close up of Iris flowers in palladium prints on Japanese gampi papers.
Handmade on Exhibit
My handmade artworks, about the metamorphosis that tattooing gives people, are exhibited with the work of two other artists at a boutique hotel on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, Untitled at 3 Freeman Alley, from November 2023 through February 15, 2024. The exhibit titled “Vital Impetus: Life Signs”, curated by Elizabeth Chatham of AzureArtsNYC is situated in the expansive modern lobby. The hotel aims to provide guests, the “tattoo generation”, with the flavor of New York City with our artworks, murals and even graffiti.
My handmade artistic approach fits with the murals hand painted in the hotel. My works on exhibit are about tattoos. I use film when I photograph people’s tattoos. I enlarge my 4X5 inch film in a wet darkroom and brush palladium on handmade Japanese gampi paper to print my negatives. I use the sun to develop the images.
The handmade Japanese gampi paper, situates the palladium images of tattoos like tattoo ink penetrates skin. Gampi paper is made from a bush found in the mountains and warm areas of Japan. Gampi cannot be cultivated and therefore is rare and the most expensive of the handmade Japanese papers. Its translucency and shiny texture make it ideal for my work incorporating tattoos with fragments of nature. It is the perfect ground for the metamorphosis I seek in my artwork where human tattoos meet fragments of nature. This metamorphosis, I hope, will transform the experience of people sitting in the comfortable lobby as they talk, enjoy coffee and work.
