Works on Paper

I corrode found steel and copper directly onto paper using combinations of salt, water, and common household acids. With each successive printing, iron and copper are transferred into the fibers of the paper. Eventually, the solid objects used to create these contact prints will completely disintegrate.

The image emerges over days and weeks, with gravity, humidity, and rate of evaporation defining the colors and textures. The hydrophilic quality of salt ensures that the works are never truly finished. Despite being treated with fixative, the salt and paper continue to absorb and release water from the air, resulting in a surface that changes over time.

Existing somewhere between drawings and prints, each work seeks to reframe destructive moments as sources of unexpected beauty and possibility.

Descriptions at right; image gallery below.

In the ongoing series This Corrosion, I explore themes of impermanence and transformation, capturing on paper the interactions between metal, water, and time.
This series is inspired by the oversized topographic/shaded relief maps of the planets produced by the United States Geological Survey.
I find those images particularly poignant because they are reminders of our own insignificance and how much we'll never know or experience during our brief time on the planet. Equally mysterious and humbling phenomena can be found much closer to home; in the ordinary, in the discards, in the forgotten.
Taking the USGS concept further and smaller, the ongoing Hubble Ultra Deep Field (HUDF) series is inspired by NASA's Hubble Ultra Deep Field capture—which until 2023, was the deepest image of the universe ever taken. It has been used to search for galaxies that existed between 400 and 800 million years after the Big Bang. To me, it is close to a religious icon, not unlike the Geological Time Spiral graphic produced by the United States Geological Survey.
From NASA's website:
In vibrant contrast to the rich harvest of classic spiral and elliptical galaxies, there is a zoo of oddball galaxies littering the field. Some look like toothpicks; others like links on a bracelet. A few appear to be interacting. These oddball galaxies chronicle a period when the universe was younger and more chaotic. Order and structure were just beginning to emerge.
In the same spirit of universal trial-and-error and limitless possibility (see also the Cambrian explosion), street detritus such as paint can lids, gaskets, and fence post caps are corroded onto 100% cotton paper, leaving behind a unique textural and visual trace of process and emergence.