Boys of swiftcurrent lake, 2025
This book is reconstructed from an original photo album owned by a man named Russell Frahm. I found his album for sale at an antique store in Sauk City, WI, for $30. In delicate and poor condition, pictures were falling out and missing, but the contents were mostly intact. Included was a wealth of visual documentation and ephemera of Russ's time working at the Many Glacier National Park Lodge on Swiftcurrent Lake in Montana during the summers of 1958-1961. Photographs and postcards reveal an elaborate and tender narrative of him and his co-workers & roommates (all men) during their time together for those summers. A strong narrative is between Russ and another young man named Alan, who is pictured repeatedly. Postcard correspondence over the three-year period uncovers communication between Russ & Alan about reuniting for the summers. With much research, I learned that Russ later became a public-school art teacher in Spooner, Wisconsin. His obituary states that he loved to paint, garden, travel, and cook for his friends. There is no mention of him ever being married. I question why his album was discarded. I felt it was my calling to give it attention and care. If the story is what I imagine, this specific time may have been one of the most memorable times of Mr. Frahm's life. Boys of Swiftcurrent Lake is dedicated to the memories and relationships Russ held dear in his special memoir. The narrative has strong queer undertones, which lead me to question who carries on queer stories if there are no children of families to pass those heirlooms on to. Do the stories remain, or do they vanish?
Anonymous Albums, 2023
Anonymous Albums are a response to finding and collecting discarded photographs. My interest in family albums has prompted the idea of giving the abandoned visual narratives of found photographs a new place to exist. I inspect the photos and draw on personal experiences to place them throughout the pages. All albums are handmade and hand-bound.
Volume of Eight, 2022
Who are we without systems of organization, record keeping, historical references, and chronicles of time passed? How do we hold onto events, experiences and narratives that have shaped our lives? I’ve chosen artifacts that hold clues to the past, such as photographs, library card catalogue cards, books, and dated short stories, to amplify the significance of objects of memory through handmade artist books. Though technology has shifted how memories are nurtured and kept, these tactile artifacts continue to inform the future.
peculiar Tales of librarians, 2021
Peculiar Tales of Librarians is an accordion book constructed using discarded library catalogue index cards. The book expands fully to 14' in length, displaying eighteen fictitious short tales paired with portraits of fictional librarians. My intent for this book is to share a portion of photographs from my collected archive while expressing my interest in fictional and sometimes unbelievable stories that harness humor, sadness, and the banal.
REcollection/Re-Collection, 2020
In Spring of 2021, I held my Master of Arts Exhibition titled Recollection/Re-Collection at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in Art Lofts Gallery. With a varied edition of nine handmade books assembled using the star shape technique and cyanotype alternative process method, I reinterpreted a set of personal family photo albums. Using inherited photographs from my maternal grandmother's archive, I initially began a photographic inquiry into the life of my great-grandfather, his dental practice, and his unexpected death. As the project progressed, I discovered I was looking at reflections of myself, which led me to question how I identify with familial figures of my past.
Envelope (quarantine) Book, 2020
In March 2020 I moved my studio practice to my living room during quarantine. It was a makeshift space equipped with a large table, bookmaking tools, and supplies. Like a mad scientist, I assembled books, journals, paper weavings, and experimental paper works. The Envelope (Quarantine) Book was my favorite piece to come out of that making frenzy. Using materials I had available in my home, the envelope book is constructed with standard mailing envelopes and various pieces of paper. The making was a way to embrace and deal with the anxiety of the pandemic.
Landscape Escape, 2019
Landscape Escape is a matchbox-sized accordion book. It is meant to be carried conveniently so that one can look at an array of landscapes whenever they please. Twenty-four landscape scenes make up the pages. All photographs are scanned from collected Kodachrome slides.
Retro Viewers, 2019
The Retro Viewers are designed from a nostalgic point of view, considering many elements such as: The View Master Toy, memory, slide viewers, personal ephemera, and the concept of camera obscura. The colors chosen for the slides are a nod to color gels used for stage lighting, invoking thoughts on fictional narrative. The small, compact Retro Viewer is multifunctional. It functions as a slide viewer and slide container. The slides are exact-sized replicas of real photographic slides and can also be viewed by an audience with a slide projector.
In Italia, 2015
In Italia is a visual diary reflecting my time in Italy during a seven-month artist residency in 2015. The photographs were made with a Polaroid Automatic 420 Land Camera, resulting in instant film format photographs. The project spans images taken all over the Tuscan region. Using the process of emulsion lift, I carefully lifted the mylar emulsion off the Polaroid photographs, then adhered those to a Fabriano paper substrate to create the pages of the accordion book, which, when fully opened, is over 18ft in length with 52 original photographs.
Physical terrain, 2009
Physical Terrain utilizes the cyanotype alternative process printing method and the accordion book form to draw metaphors on the contour of the female form and the physicality of landscape.
