EXCAVATIONS

On a cool September day I sit in the hemp field, removing ribbons of fiber. As dirt collects under my nails, I have lots of time to think. The process of papermaking is a contemplative ritual that has become intrinsically valuable to my practice. It’s a beautifully laborious task. I sit with my material in its most natural state and carry it through its many forms. I cook, beat, shape, and cast it- laying the damp fiber down in my plaster molds. Its final form mirrors the plaster tablet it’s casted from. Like a fossil or strange artifact, these paper forms have been ripped from their resting place in the cold rock. A trench remains. Excavations investigates the string that ties a form to its origin throughout layers of evolution. Scraps of the original hemp stalk’s core still remain in my final casts. Tiny crumbs of plaster find their way into them as well. The fragments sit in wax like bone in amber, preserving history in their surfaces.