This series of work is based off of Annie Dillard’s essay “Teaching A Stone To Talk”. The stone is a metaphor for nature and the silence that comes from the stone is indicative of the imbalance and lost connection humans have with the natural environment. What once was may never be again.

The prints in the series were made through an ancient Japanese printmaking process of burnishing dry paper onto a wet wood substrate that has a design on it. Charcoal and dry pigments are rubbed onto the wood before applying water and picking up the print.  A stone was used to make the marks in the wood and through collaboration with my hand, I have attempted to restore a dialogue between the various natural materials. These prints are a record of the conversation and become a story of a dialogue within them.

Conversation Wheel (For Conversation With Stones from Tishomingo) is a kinetic sculpture created to force another conversation. The stones rub against the copper in the wheel, creating marks that will be printed as etchings. The combined eight etchings will be combined to create a book that documents the conversation.