Nature Is a Haunted House

“Nature is a Haunted House— but Art— a House that tries to be haunted.”

- Emily Dickinson (1876 letter to Thomas Higginson)

Nature is a Haunted House is a series of installation works that incorporate painting, drawing, found objects, sculpture, insect and plant material, and decorative objects.

The works in Nature Is a Haunted House focus on places where the wild and domestic get mingled: the rough edges of the suburban yard, urban animals in human-dominated spaces, the borders of wild parkland. In such spaces, natural and man-made get jumbled, and the thriving, living elements adapt and assert themselves, so that the notion of an inherently pure nature set aside and “out there” becomes eroded. Instead, nature is here, next door, underfoot, and within reach.

The show features animal, insect, and plant life that exists near humans, with both unfortunate and beneficial outcomes. These works are informed by the slow, accumulated examination of the wild and domestic life on North Mountain in the Hot Springs National Park where I live and work. Each piece is an attempt to fix and capture an intimate experience of this permeable boundary between the natural and the human.

A Small Piece of Turf, 2019, watercolor, colored pencil, gesso, dura-lar, grass plant in resin, table 

Synanthropes Series, watercolor and acrylic on pergamenata, tissue, 2022

Preservation Series, colored pencil, tissue, and resin, 2022-24

Mortal Objects, 2018, colored pencil on dura-lar and paper, antique boxes, insects (harvested post-mortem), wisteria pod, tulip petals, tanned opossum skin, thread

Offerings, 2018, vintage pillow, gesso, oil, acrylic, raccoon taxidermy mounts, waxed thread, lace, beads

Carna Herba, 2019, watercolor, paper, air-dry clay, acrylic, shelf, bottle, water

Turtle Embroidery, 2019, cotton yarn, turtle shell, video, embroidery hoop, vinyl fabric, mirror stand

Syphon,  2019, colored pencil on dura-lar, monofilament, shelf, fabric, antique urinal, antique basin