Seaweed Sensibilities

George Marshall Gallery
York, Maine
August 1-September 6, 2020

I first created this wall installation for Seaweed Sensibilities to include drawings, paintings, found seaweed, woven seaweed, and what I call ‘tumbles’, which are constructed from rattan. Not yet finished, I finally included beakers of periwinkles, or Littorina obtusata. I have collected these small bright shells on the shores of Great Diamond Island over the last seven years. I am particularly drawn to the yellow ‘winkles’ because they literally feed on the seaweed commonly known as rockweed and formally known as Ascophyllum nodosum.

A former teacher and artist friend first suggested I show the work in the way I originally constructed it in the studio. When drinking It In, she told me:

“I love seeing the drawings adjacent to the seaweed fragments and your rattan constructions. Have you ever had an exhibition in this 'process' installation mode?  If this makes sense: each iteration — drawing; dried, shellacked seaweed; rattan construction — points to a way of seeing, thinking and doing that displays the fundamental ways that humans interpret and employ nature’s wealth.  Love it.  All so sensitively rendered. The words that come to mind describing this work include powerful, sensitive, disturbing, original, haunting and gorgeous.”

 I listened.