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| Contact/Shows | Artist Statement | Marine Conservation Resources |
| Who knows what admirable virtues of fishes may be below low-water-mark, bearing up against a hard destiny, not admired by that fellow creature who alone can appreciate it! Who hears the fishes when they cry? It will not be forgotten by some memory that we were contemporaries. |
| Henry David Thoreau |
These woodcut prints are part of a series of portraits intended to celebrate the beauty and diversity of marine life in the face of increasing threats posed by overfishing, global climate change, pollution, and habitat destruction. Many marine ecosystems are in great danger, with most major fisheries severely overexploited and some species facing extinction. We have a frontier mentality toward the ocean, and decades of abuse are taking their toll.
Most of us have a very limited connection with the sea, and it's hard to inspire sympathy or concern for creatures normally only seen on dinner plates. In the tradition of portraiture, I seek to give a sense of dignity and identity to the individual, and by extension a collective face to the previously anonymous species we so easily dismiss as seafood or sport. I hope that the prints will spark an interest in the fish and a desire to learn more.
My creative process is informed by a great deal of reading, both about the individual animals as well as in the broader areas of environmental responsibility, conservation, biodiversity, and natural history. I am intrigued by how science can inform art and how art can contribute to political and scientific dialogues. The medium of the artwork is also very important to me: the printed image has a long history as a means for social or political commentary and as a democratic, accessible medium. In the reduction printing technique, a single woodblock is gradually cut away in-between each color pressing, leaving it destroyed by the end of the process with a closed edition of prints. Working with the wood grain and watching the image emerge and become more defined as each color is printed gives me a sense of getting to know the creature, and a feeling for its fragility and sentience that is truly humbling. With our ability to affect life and death in the sea comes a tremendous responsibility to protect and conserve. Who hears the fishes when they cry? Their loss will diminish us all.