Undertow, 2021 - present
Archival pigment prints
13 x 19 inches, Edition of 5 + 2 AP, 24 x 36, Edition of 3 + 2 AP
Tide Pools and Dry Sand Silhouettes
Boiled and altered archival pigment prints on cradled wood panel
Specimen Jars
Pigment in microporous coating of archival pigment print, transparency film, acrylic paint, glycerin, glass.
6.6 x 5.5 x 5.5 inches and 6.75 x 3.72 x 3.72 inches
Seaweed Bow Specimen, 2024
Preserved Sand Patterns, 2024
Embedded in the Landscape, 2024
Odd Man Out, 2024
Beach Scene in a Jar, 2024
Preserved Crab Sand Sculpture, 2024
Undertow (2021–present)
Undertow incorporates altered photographs of California's seaside into framed archival pigment prints and photographic objects that simulate multiple phases of climate change. After witnessing over four decades of sea-level rise around my childhood home in Biddeford Pool, Maine, I envision catastrophic futures for the coast near my current residence in San Diego. This project reflects on our collective loss of the modern-day seaboard.
By making this work, I alleviate fears of losing my seashore homescapes by enacting multiple image-manipulation methods. I soak inkjet prints in water to replicate coastal flooding, then photograph them while the pigment separates from the paper backing. I create archival pigment prints from this new imagery to memorialize their transitions. I transfer these image lifts into glycerin-filled jars to mimic scientific specimens. This process conserves remnants of the photographed shoreline. Then, I boil prints in salt water and mount them on wood panels with sand, salt, and sometimes resin. These panels memorialize battered treasures, just like shells or sea glass collected from tide pools or dry sand during a beach walk. Each modification quiets my anxiety about the shore’s inevitable disappearance. Through controlled experimentation, I create a new, imagined landscape, unaffected by climate change.
Undertow preserves my sense of home and self by reinterpreting the landscapes of my past, present, and future. With this series, I share my fixation on the impending end of our present-day coastline. By confronting the demise of our familiar environment, we can begin to mourn and reflect on the stakes, now and for generations to come.