Towards a Just Landscape is a multi-part project about the 49th Parallel, the 20-foot swath of clear-cut that divides the US from Canada along its International Boundary, as it physically marks the landscape between the Lake of the Woods and the Northern Rockies. More specifically, it is a project about the portion of the border swath that runs through the center of Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park, dividing in two an area of land reserved to commemorate international peace and good will between two nations. Comprised of three artist's books, these works each address the political and ecological consequences of the border clearing on their surrounding landscape in their own unique way, and together seek to reimagine the way we interact with border regions.

Caput Mortuum is a visual representation of my own spiritual quest for enlightenment using alchemy. Ancient alchemists sought perfection in all things and visualized a personal spiritual hierarchy that resided within all physical matter. The lowest tier of this scale represents the dull and lifeless material while the highest could touch the Divine. Reshaping the material world revealed the ordinary item's latent potential, aiding in its own transformation as well as the alchemist's into more perfect beings. Inspired by this idea, I seek to bring ultimate perfection to every piece I create. By manipulating and altering books and book forms I replicate the physical work alchemists performed, each time changing myself with the book, elevating our spiritual beings in order to bring perfection from within.

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The purpose of my thesis project, A View of Affect has been two fold: to engage closely with an early modern book, and to experiment with the idea that self-examination as a legitimate way to gain knowledge about the body. Working with Robert Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, (1621) has opened to view the extensive constellation of ideas that were part of the philosophical universe of the time. I engaged with the Anatomy of Melancholy by immersing myself in the prose, responding to Burton's writing with my own writing. I also studied and made drawings from early modern anatomical illustrations, and I drew shapes found in nature that seemed analogous to shapes in the body. All the while, I relied firmly on my own observations. The shapes found in nature, and the line quality in the early modern prints influenced my drawings, but I only drew what I saw. A View of Affect is not a historical model, but I did fully embrace Burton's belief in the importance of direct observation. The purpose of my treatise on the how emotions exist and function in the body is not to specify what is there for others, but to encourage readers to look carefully at their own internal life.

Six flash nonfiction comic essays composed in direct conversation with the combination of the flash nonfiction form and the comic form make up the body of this creative thesis. In addition to this creative work, a comparison of several essential craft aspects of flash nonfiction and comic composition are discussed, and an argument is made for the benefit of melding the two forms. This hybrid genre of flash nonfiction comics benefits from aspects of both forms craft, including: heightened potency of images and themes, a dependence on association, and narrative structures based on expanding larger ideas from “miniatures.” The comic form’s difficulties in dealing with nonfiction approaches to authorial presence and figurative language is also discussed. Ultimately, the melding of the flash nonfiction form and the comic form creates valuable opportunities for both genres and their writers—as the six flash nonfiction comic essays, which make up the body of this creative thesis, illustrate.

As Yet Uncertain: A Portrait in Procession is an installation of prints featuring a combination of image and text. Drawing inspiration from various depictions of the grotesque in art and literature, the project examines the grotesque form, both in body and mind. As Yet Uncertain: A Portrait in Procession observes how the grotesque—a body that is always in the act of becoming—relates to uncertainties and ambivalence in identity and humanity.

Book and paper conservation integrates several disciplines, including traditional handcrafts, hard sciences, and art and book history, each with distinct methodologies and epistemic cultures. In order to examine how book and paper conservators straddle these varied fields and methodologies, a large-scale survey was conducted to investigate information sharing within the field. This examination of both formal publication and informal, lateral communication was inspired by the work of sociologists of science such as Derek J. de Solla Price and Diana Crane, including their concept of invisible colleges. A sample of one hundred book and paper conservators was questioned on methods of information sharing and attitudes towards topics such as publication and peer review. The result shows a field with great respect for formal methods of publication but still largely centered around informal methods of information sharing. Based on the survey results, potential methods of information sharing that may be well suited to the singularities of the field are discussed. / text

An interweaving of text and image.

Trace Time is an interdisciplinary book arts exhibit featuring handmade paper installations, one-of-a-kind prints and book objects, and a fine press artist’s book in edition. The theme of this work focuses on the relationship between humans and the rest of the natural world by examining the tension between organic lifecycles and human cultivation, control, and constraint of the environment. By following a system for tracing natural surroundings, I document environmental movement in a series of time-based sequential pieces measuring light, water, and color.

Via Negativa is my response to a linear, rational, Western framework of expressing and experiencing religion, as well as of reading. This project represents a shift away from Protestant Reformed thinking. It has meant an embrace of the unknown, a celebration of darkness, and an exploration of ancient religious texts to find meaning. This essay describes formative experiences and past artwork leading up to Via Negativa, as well as a description of the project itself.