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. Walking the shorelines and interior trails, I’ve gathered shapes, colors, sounds, and textures, recombining them as the place began to make sense to me.

These first responses 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 in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania and the Farnsworth Art Museum in 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