My large-scale fiber sculptures and smaller pen and ink drawings highlight the elegance of rare and common plants living in our forests. I document these plants because art can play a crucial role in helping us reconnect with nature. As an artist, I recently had the honor to serve on Rock Creek Park Conservancy’s Forest Resilience Framework Team. This team consists of foresters, botanists, and other scientists from the National Park Service and other regional and national partners. Our objective was to evaluate the state of Rock Creek Park in Washington, DC, and come up with a plan for the National Park to best preserve this fragile forest in the face of climate change. As an artist on this team, I was tasked with the unique opportunity to use my art to raise public awareness of our declining forest by showcasing the forest’s fragility and splendor visually.
I am excited to share that the resulting solo exhibition, “Faces of the Forest,” sponsored by Rock Creek Park Conservancy, is scheduled this fall, September 12- December 9, 2024, and will be held at The Writer’s Center in Bethesda, MD. The exhibition will feature “3-D portraits” of plants impacted by climate change, presenting them as large-scale specimens with exquisite detail up to 15 times their original size. Each piece takes three- size months to create, depending on the work required. They are made with white Dacron, on which I draw the plant, cut it out, sew the pieces together by hand & machine, and support the resulting sculptural form internally with copper wire. The piece is painted with acrylics, mounted on a painted canvas background, and framed in a deep frame.
The finished work ranges from 4.5’ square to 3’ wide x 7’ tall. This scale enables the veins of each plant to be seen in vibrant focus, illuminating the plant as a life-breathing force. At the exhibition this fall, I will host an artist symposium, " If the Forest Could Talk", that includes an artist talk along with a panel of botanists and foresters who informed this work and who support the Park in its forest resilience efforts.
Before I partnered with Rock Creek Park Conservancy, I had the privilege of serving as the first Artist-in-Residence for Dumbarton Oaks Park Conservancy, Washington DC (2017-2019). Additionally, I have had the honor of receiving several Individual Artist Fellowships from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities (2024,2023, 2022, 2020 & 2019). My work has been reviewed by the Washington Post, and featured in the Washington Times, Washingtonian Magazine, and other publications, including the American Society of Landscape Architects blog, “The Dirt” and House & Gardens. Mark Jenkins of the Washington Post described my large-scale works as “verging on the majestic” and my pen and ink drawings as “charming.” Adrian Higgins, Washington Post Living, section wrote: “If the purpose of art is to make us see familiar objects afresh, this project has to be considered a success.”

Regarding the other parts of my life, I was raised in Kentucky, graduated from Smith College, studied art at Penland School of Crafts and the Cochran School of Art, received a law degree from the University of Louisville, and practiced law at the Environmental Protection Agency, in Washington, DC.