DRYING POND
Drying Pond is a response to my father’s handmade childhood book Pond Life, which catalogs pond species through drawings arranged from A–Z. Building from this archive, I crafted an intergenerational collaboration that examines ecological change and inherited ways of observing the natural world. By pairing my father’s early illustrations with my analog photography, printmaking, and handmade paper, I transform observation into a shared visual curiosity between art and science, father and daughter. Atmospheric photographs of pond organisms and environments are interwoven with fragments of poetry derived from scientific descriptions of each species.
Created between my studio in Madison, Wisconsin, and the pond landscape where I was raised in Michigan, the project returns to the site where my father first taught me about insects, plants, and seasonal cycles. With each visit home, I witness and document changes to this ecosystem: encroaching willows and cattails, longer and hotter summers, and receding water levels. By combining our imagery, archives, and collected natural materials, Drying Pond becomes both a personal and ecological record—an ongoing dialogue that reflects childhood imagination, inherited knowledge, and a gradually shifting landscape.
Artist book printed on Red River Aurora Natural Cotton paper and Awagami Factory Bamboo paper, with a cover lining of handmade cattail paper collected from around my childhood pond. Edition of 5.
