Rust and Tannin

Handmade paper, iron filings, walnut tannin, salt, 24 karat gold leaf.

60 X 80 inch drawings 

2019

The irregular, sometimes broken, surface of the paper is made to mirror the scarred, sunburned crabapple leaves used as source materials for these works. The long fibers in these papers allow the sheets to be both fragile in appearance, and very strong. They are wet and dry many times while the images are rusted and stained into the surface. Once dry they are cut through into images of leaves and networks of insect damage.

 These drawings are inspired by the cedar-apple rust plant pathogen. This fungus occurs in rural areas that alternate between farmland and forest or thicket. Two hosts are required for it to be present — a juniper species and a crabapple — that are usually within a mile of each other.