Mountains As Mirrors

Artist Statement:

These visions of rock and ice are reflections of where I go, what I notice and how I dream. For me, the mountains come into focus through three lenses – science, adventures and art.

Glacier monitoring work has attuned me to see the creeping shifts in ice. I see our slowness to address climate change written in the moraines and the meltwater. I feel the effects of warmer, drier summers in the shifting alpine vegetation and my life downstream.

Dynamic glacial landscapes compel me to explore, as many will not be experienced in the same way twice. Through skiing and climbing, I learn what I am capable of on the shoulders of the mountains. I also gain the perspectives that are only possible from a height of land – that picture of everything braided together, physically intertwined and vulnerable.

As an artist, I chew through all of this with woodcut printmaking. The act of making these prints starts with careful planning. Then, like starting off on a climb or a traverse, intuitive movement and connection with the material take over: reading the woodgrain like reading a snowy slope, chiseling away wood like a glacier gouges rock. Some lines are smooth and others rough, mirroring my awareness of the glacierscapes I carve. Eventually I ink, press and pull back the paper where I see the final convergence of my mountain movements and curiosity.