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CARRIER BAG THEORY OF CONSERVATION

This piece was created for Creature Conserve’s Re-Inhabiting Conservation: Using Art to Bring Wildlife Conservation Closer to Home exhibition at GoggleWorks Center for the Arts in Reading, PA. It is now on view at contemporary art center IA&A at Hillyer in Washington, D.C. as part of Creature Conserve’s Re-Inhabiting Conservation: Our Shared Skies until November 29, 2026.

This painting is inspired by

Ursula K. Le Guin’s essay The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction (rooted in Elizabeth Fisher’s theory of evolution) which reframes human history as a story of gathering and tending to life rather than one of heroic conquest. Attention is shifted from familiar pollinator icons (adult moths and butterflies) and centers caterpillars with their host plants as “carrier bags” of future ecosystems: organisms whose survival and interaction make pollination, and the consequential radiation of life, possible. These small systems contain the fate of large ones. Conservation is not always heroic spectacle; it is slow and patient attention, carried in a bundle as small as a caterpillar. Le Guin writes, “It is the story that makes the difference.” Here, the story of conservation is one of reverence and devotion for interdependent and foundational relationships such as these.

36 x 36 inches; acrylic and latex on birch panel. Full species key here.

“AS FULL AND CLEAR AS FALLING WATER”

This piece was created for the 2026 “The Ribbon” group show as part of the Susannah Kelly Art Award at Antler Gallery in Portland, OR, honoring Susannah Kelly and exploring themes of rebirth, renewal, and the circle of life.

“As Full and Clear As Falling Water”

Two adult American dippers take turns foraging and feeding their chicks in their moss- and fern-laden nest built behind a waterfall along a fast moving creek. The title is a line from Mary Oliver’s poem, “The Dipper.”

18 x 24 inches. Ballpoint pen and charcoal on paper.

SONORAN DESERT

This commission features a pair of Broad-tailed hummingbirds and a family of Gambel’s quail gathered around scarlet hedgehog X fishhook cacti hybrids. Acrylic on birch, 36 x 48 inches.

DRAWING TRADITIONS

I love participating in yearly bird drawing traditions like Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Bird Art Week, and Birbfest. These are pen and charcoal on grey-toned paper. 4x6 inches.

BIRDS ON SHELLS

This ongoing series celebrates bird and shell diversity and explores the curiously high number of look-alike pairs who would likely never interact, offering a glimmering glimpse of the immeasurable connections between us all. These have been shown at Art Gym Denver (2024) and in a solo exhibition at the Gunnison Arts Center (2026). Acrylic on birch. 18 x 24 inches.

UMBRELLA

This piece was created for SeeSaw Gallery as part of the 2026 Shared Vision: The Sharon Prize group show. In 2023, I was a recipient of the Sharon Prize, a grant supporting women and nonbinary artists in Colorado. In 2024, I served as a juror. This group show at SeeSaw features finalists and recipients of the Sharon Prize since its inception in 2022.

UMBRELLA

A Black heron displays its umbrella/canopy feeding behavior, surrounded by fellow flora and fauna that can be found throughout the Chobe River watershed in Botswana. My late Aunt Colleen had a long career in international aid, working with the Peace Corps, USAID, and Doctors Without Borders in the Congo, Zimbabwe, and Sudan. She kept a wildlife checklist during a trip to Botswana, which was recently passed down to me. In it, she noted “Umbrella!” next to the Black heron, the inspiration behind this piece. Full species key here.

36 x 36 inches; acrylic and latex on birch panel. Thank you to Paul Wheatley for allowing me to study his videos of a Black heron for reference.

GOOD WARM LIGHT

Named after Frida Kahlo’s description of the color green in her writings from 1957: ‘el verde - luz tibia y buena’. Various green organisms tend to their ecological niches. Shown in the 2025 Babe Walls Women’s History Month Show in Denver’s RiNo Art Park and at the Silverthorne Performing Arts Center for the Town of Silverthorne’s 2025 Botanical Art Installation. Acrylic on birch, 24 x 19 inches.

GOOD WARM LIGHT

An Anna’s hummingbird tends to her nest amongst vibrant and drying maidenhair and lady ferns. Young steelhead venture from their natal streams to the ocean before returning again, again, and again, all within one lifetime. A chorus frog climbs towards Darlingtonia pitcher plants, who prefer the challenging conditions of serpentine.

Devil’s hole pupfish persist as survivors in a vanishing habitat. Epicormic redwood sprouts burst about after fire. A peridot sweat bee humbly rests from her work. A rough green snake quietly shines, having shed her skin in rebirth. A powerful green darner dragonfly dances through their brilliant and transitional lifecycle.

Nurturing, renewing, and continuing on through while carrying mutual care, the coexistence of hope and grief, and many gleams of good, warm light.

MEMORIA

An ongoing community portrait series of folks’ sense of place through the lenses of art, advocacy, and the natural world. These pieces have evolved from printed photographs + hand-drawn elements (Phase 1) to hand-drawn portraits (Phase 2). Phase 3 will feature hand-drawn portraits + hand-drawn elements, joining the first two phases. Portraits have been shown in solo exhibitions at PlatteForum (2025) Bell Projects Denver and Art Gym Denver (2024), and at group shows at the Art District on Santa Fe; the 41st Annual All Colorado Show at the Curtis Center for the Arts, CO; the Brinton Museum in Bighorn, WY; the Niza Knoll Gallery for MoPrint, CO; and BRDG Project, CO.

Phase 2 (Above)

Each individual is hand-drawn with ballpoint pen, then printed with platinum-palladium. Platinum prints are created using light-sensitive chemicals, cotton paper, and exposure to the sun, an historic archival process invented in the 1800s. The noble metals bind directly to the paper; therefore the prints, if properly cared for, can last hundreds of years, outliving the individual.

Phase 1 (Below)

I photographed the individual, printed their portraits with platinum-palladium, and added hand-painted elements inspired by their stories. All pieces are 22 inches x 30 inches on 100% cotton Revere 320 gsm Platinum Paper. Click on each piece to learn more!

PEN & INK

 BODNER SERIES

A series of large-scale ocean organism paintings inspired by Lord Bodner’s 19th Century copper engraving of a giant Pacific Octopus. All pieces are hand drawn on acrylic using white paint pens.