1. Schwerd_Festooned, view 1.jpg
       
     
10. Festooned, view 2.jpg
       
     
2. Schwerd_Evasive Species.jpg
       
     
Evasive Species_ detail 1_GV.jpg
       
     
4. Schwerd_River Rope Sculptures.jpg
       
     
7. Schwerd_River Ropes, detail, orange basket.jpg
       
     
8. Schwerd_River Rope Sculptures, detail, blue anchor.jpg
       
     
12. Schwerd_River Rope Sculpture, detail, black handle.jpg
       
     
River Ropes_Black and Yellow .jpg
       
     
multi colored knot.jpg
       
     
1. Schwerd_ Drift 2, Side view.jpg
       
     
2. Schwerd_Drift 2, front view.jpg
       
     
Red Amalgam
       
     
Red Amalgam
       
     
Red Amalgam, detail
       
     
Shard
       
     
Graft
       
     
March 28th 2013, Devil's Punchbowl State Natural Area, Oregon
       
     
 March 28th 2013, Devil's Punchbowl State Natural Area, Oregon, detail
       
     
Drift 1, Acadiana Center for the Arts, 2019
       
     
Drift
       
     
Drift, detail
       
     
1. Schwerd_Festooned, view 1.jpg
       
     
10. Festooned, view 2.jpg
       
     
2. Schwerd_Evasive Species.jpg
       
     
Evasive Species_ detail 1_GV.jpg
       
     
4. Schwerd_River Rope Sculptures.jpg
       
     
7. Schwerd_River Ropes, detail, orange basket.jpg
       
     
8. Schwerd_River Rope Sculptures, detail, blue anchor.jpg
       
     
12. Schwerd_River Rope Sculpture, detail, black handle.jpg
       
     
River Ropes_Black and Yellow .jpg
       
     
multi colored knot.jpg
       
     
1. Schwerd_ Drift 2, Side view.jpg
       
     
2. Schwerd_Drift 2, front view.jpg
       
     
Red Amalgam
       
     
Red Amalgam

wood, bone, twine, leather, plastic, 30” x 12” x 12”, 2019

The works in Confluence aspire to embody the chaos and intricacy of those transfigured objects.

Red Amalgam
       
     
Red Amalgam

wood, bone, twine, leather, plastic 30” x 12” x 12”, 2019

They are amalgams of natural and synthetic elements.

Red Amalgam, detail
       
     
Red Amalgam, detail

wood, bone, twine, leather , plastic 30” x 12” x 12”, 2019

Entwined by methods drawn from net making, basketry, and needle lace, they balance suggestions of craft and accrual, and of human agency and complicity.

Shard
       
     
Shard

bone, plastic, thread, 7 1/2” xx 5” x 3”, 2014

They reflect the unnerving beauty and ambiguity that lured me to reclaim the discarded matter and to consider the implications of such a conversion.

Graft
       
     
Graft

plastic, fishing line, 7” x 16” x 7”, 2019

March 28th 2013, Devil's Punchbowl State Natural Area, Oregon
       
     
March 28th 2013, Devil's Punchbowl State Natural Area, Oregon

plastic, fishing line, 16” x 20”, 2013- 2019

Troves of colorful plastic fragments were scattered like confetti along the beach. Upon close inspection, I could see that the sun and salt had hewn their surfaces, producing subtle, organic textures in a broad spectrum of colors.

 March 28th 2013, Devil's Punchbowl State Natural Area, Oregon, detail
       
     
March 28th 2013, Devil's Punchbowl State Natural Area, Oregon, detail

plastic, fishing line, 16” x 20”, 2013- 2019

They reminded me of the red, blue, and green sea glass that my mother and I eagerly gathered along the shore when I was young. We displayed our treasure in jars on the window sill to catch the sunlight.

Drift 1, Acadiana Center for the Arts, 2019
       
     
Drift 1, Acadiana Center for the Arts, 2019

wood, twine, steel, found objects, dimensions variable, 2019

The interlaced sculptures in the exhibition Confluence, germinated from materials gathered 5 years ago, while in residence at the Sitka Center for Art and Ecology on the Oregon coast. The man-made beach debris was abundant that spring, having crossed the ocean on currents carrying wreckage from the Tsunami that had hit the northeastern coast of Japan in 2011.

Drift
       
     
Drift

wood, twine, steel, found objects, dimensions variable, 2019

In planning this exhibition for the Acadiana Center for the Arts in Lafayette, LA, I was inspired to incorporate the prominent columns in the Side Gallery. Drift visualizes a ghost vessel I encountered on Lincoln Beach being swept across the convergence zone by the powerful Kuroshio “Black Current” and North Pacific Currents.

Drift, detail
       
     
Drift, detail

wood, twine, steel, found objects, dimensions variable, 2019

I encountered many troubling but beautiful examples of the sea’s capacity to reform and ornament refuse. The small fishing boat had survived its long journey across the Pacific intact, but it’s once smooth contours were now heavily festooned with goose barnacles. Turbulent weavings of fishing line and buoy, driftwood and kelp regularly emerged at low tide.