Artist Statement

My writing seeks to blur the lines between the “natural” world and what is perceived as the “unnatural” or “man-made” world in an attempt to personalize issues of environmental destruction and climate change. I am influenced by, and aim to respectfully incorporate, Indigenous cosmologies and relationships to land in order to move away from the ways of knowing I was trained in as a student of Western science. I also aim to thoughtfully acknowledge the legacies of violence towards Black and Indigenous people of color, LGBT+ people, disabled people, neurodivergent people, and female/feminine bodies that often tie us to the land in unique ways. I am driven by the desire to make known the most “unnatural” or “ugly” parts of my human experience through metaphors of “natural” beauty. Conversely, I hope to personalize large-scale ecological disasters by tying them into experiences of body image, queerness, sexual violence, individual/familial trauma, mental illness, or addiction (all based on my lived experiences, or what I have observed in those close to me).