Artist Statement

I grew up paying attention to things most people walk past. As a child I held small funerals for the birds I found in the garden: flowers, a mound of earth, the whole ceremony. Death and longing still run through everything I make, in drawings as in the short stories I write. I have been holding small ceremonies for what is lost for as long as I can remember.

Trained as a restorer of cultural objects, I work with a conservator’s care for how things last, in watercolour, fine liner, acrylic and linocut. I am drawn to linocut because a carved image can be repeated and travel, so a small quiet thing can reach many people without losing its handmade quality. Through the Magic & Chaos Ink Club, a print arrives each month with a handwritten letter, something other than bills in the mailbox.

I draw old houses from Campeche, Merida, and Santo Domingo. I add something impossible, like plants too large for their walls, because old houses hold more than they show. Now I am moving closer, to a single aldaba. A door knocker sits between inside and outside. In a world that no longer needs it to announce anyone, it risks being lost. As a restorer, I draw it to preserve it. In stories, from fairy tales to the knockers in Labyrinth, aldabas see, feel, speak and warn of danger. They have always been guardians. This is my way of keeping watch over them.