Allen and Benner Islands

2024 - current

Mapping: an exercise in constructing memory—a collection of sensory references about the physical world around us and the meanings they hold.

In 2024 I was invited by the Colby College Museum of Art to participate in a residency with three other artists and a curator on Allen and Benner Islands, two islands off the coast of Maine whose landscapes were shaped extensively by Betsy James Wyeth. We spent two weeks exploring the terrain, gathering stories, and immersing ourselves in the ethos of the islands.

In the time since, I’ve gotten to know the islands from the air and the ground, and by listening to stories from those intimately familiar with the land, its ecology, and recent history. I’ve walked the shorelines and interior trails, gathering shapes, colors, sounds, and textures and recombining all of this as they come to make sense.

Some of my first pieces created in response to these islands will be shown in 2026 at the Colby Museum alongside those of the other residency artists as part of a multi-sited exhibition with the Brandywine Museum of Art, Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania and the Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, Maine, in association with the Wyeth Foundation of American Art, the Farnsworth Museum.

The images here are a small sampling of works and process so far. More to come.

Lichen Rope, created from fallen Usnea sp. lichen, Allen Island, 2024